Stop blaming your usual suspect for the flooding.

This was the reaction of Antonio Calaycay of the National Power Corporation’s Flood Forecasting and Warning System to accusations aired that the San Roque Dam in San Manuel town was to blame for the severe flooding in Moncada and Paniqui in Tarlac, and Cuyapo in Nueva Ecija that momentarily closed traffic along the MacArthur Highway.

He said San Roque dam did not release water from its spillway downstream of the Agno river at anytime.

He also pointed out that Cuyapo, Moncada and Paniqui are too far away from San Roque dam and the Agno river, and therefore, the flooding was caused by other factors.

As a matter of fact, he said, some of the water from Tarlac and Nueva Ecija are draining into the Agno river, all the way to the Lingayen Gulf.

Monitoring reports from Calaycay’s office indicated that when rains have stopped in the Upper Agno River Basin, it was still raining over the area of Mt. Ampucao watershed in Benguet, north of Pangasinan as well as the mountains in eastern Nueva Ecija.

The flooding in Tarlac and Nueva Ecija may have been caused by heavy rains in eastern Nueva Ecija, including Aurora and not from the San Roque Dam.

The highest water level of the San Roque reservoir was recorded at 276 meters, still short of tits   normal water level of 280 meters, he added.

San Roque is receiving all the water from the smaller Ambuklao dam whose two gates remained open, and Binga dam whose one gate was opened to continuously generate 400 megawatts of power from the Luzon grid.

The Sinocalan river is where the waters of the Macalong river in Urdaneta, the Tagamusing river in Binalonan and Toboy river in Asingan flow into and finds its way to the Lingayen Gulf passing the Marusay and Pantal  rivers in Calasiao and Dagupan respectively.

All these rivers are parts of the watershed originating from Mt. Ampucao in Tuba, Benguet, which is notconnected to the Agno river.

Meanwhile, Bayambang Mayor Leocadio de Vera said no flood was felt in his town since after the Department of Public Works and Highways redirected the bigger volume of water coming from the Tarlac river through the Colisao Creek to the Agno river through the town of Alcala.

The bigger volume of run-off water skirted Bayambang sparing the Poblacion from another disastrous flood.

But in case of flood, he said, the town has nine ready evacuation centers situated in different strategic areas that were constructed by the DPWH.

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments