Demand to decommission San Roque divides mayors
A TALL ORDER
LINGAYEN–Should the San Roque Dam be closed?
That is the question that now confronts the province’s local leaders as they face the huge task of rehabilitating Pangasinan after it suffered an estimated P10 billion damage in infrastructure, agriculture and household properties wrought by the massive flood from October 8-14.
The unprecedented flooding was believed to have been caused by heavy rains from Typhoon “Pepeng” and aggravated by the release of huge volume of water from the San Roque Dam.
The proposal to decommission the San Roque Dam was raised during a meeting of local officials called by Governor Amado Espino Jr. last Monday, that coincided with his Lingguhang Talakayan sa Kapitolyo program.
The idea, forwarded by Urdaneta City Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr., quickly prompted differing positions among provincial officials and mayors.
Perez, who was a congressman when the San Roque Dam was being constructed by an international consortium led by Japan’s Marubeni and Ital-Thai Corporation, asserted that the dam is dangerously situated near two earthquake fault lines: San Manuel and Digdig fault lines.
He painted a grim scenario wiping out towns and cities should there be a breach caused by an earthquake. A breach in San Roque Dam caused by a high-magnitude quake, he said, would cause a 10- story high flood level in his city and other eastern towns, and at least three-storey high in Dagupan, Binmaley and Lingayen.
To minimize the risks to the communities, if a total closure of the dam’s operations would not be possible, he suggested that the power service component of the San Roque Dam that requires a big volume of water, be terminated, and only said the dam’s flood control and irrigation components as well as its capability to deliver better water quality in the lowlands of Pangasinan should be maintained.
Vice Governor Marlyn Primicias-Agabas, a lawyer, threw her support to the initiative, and said the provincial board will deliberate the issue in consultation with different sectors in the province.
Agabas said she initially gathered a consensus among several residents of Pangasinan affected by the flood and the general sentiment is to call for the de-commissioning of the power generation component of the dam only.
Perez said the decommissioning of the power component of the San Roque Dam could relieve people of Pangasinan, traumatized by last week’s big flood, the worst in the province’s memory, of fears, worries and tension arising from the dam’s operations.
The San Roque Dam is the highest rock-fill down in the whole of Southeast Asia and the second highest in Asia, and capable of storing 280 meters high of water in its reservoir.
Perez stressed that the life in the communities can expect to return to normalcy in four to six months but the threat of San Roque Dam will remain.
He called on officials of the government to weigh the claimed benefits that the San Roque Dam provides against the losses that the people will continue to suffer every time a typhoon as strong as Pepeng hits the province.
The San Roque Dam generates 345 megawatts of power for the Luzon Grid.
AGAINST CLOSURE
On the other hand, several mayors do not support the decommissioning of the dam nor proposed termination of any service component of the dam.
Sison Mayor Kimi Cojuangco said the San Roque Dam has real benefits, including power, for the province and all that is needed is make the people tasked to manage this facility to be more vigilant and follow protocols in the release of water that will serve Pangasinan.
At the same time, Cojuangco called on her fellow mayors to be “open minded” to other possible sources of electricity such as nuclear power.
“Let us realize that so many countries of the world have nuclear power plants and we have a sturdy, ready plant in Bataan that can supply 200 megawatts for Luzon. . . which is cheap power,” she said.
Sta. Barbara Mayor Reynaldo Velasco shares this view as he opposed the Perez proposal demanding for San Roque’s decommissioning.
He said the San Roque Dam has many uses and this is not only power generation but also for irrigation. He pushed for the earlier construction of the re-regulating pond of the San Roque Dam in order to minimize the flooding caused by water releases.
Dagupan City Administrator Alvin Fernandez also sees water from the San Roque Dam as a resource that can be tapped to provide drinking water in Dagupan, especially when all of the city’s well shall have been affected by salt-water intrusion because of the worsening climate change. —LM
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