Agno River is connected to Dagupan City, say
OFFICIALS of government agencies as well as mining companies are lying when they say there is no hydrological connection between the Agno River and the Pantal-Sinocalan River that drains water to Dagupan before exiting to the Lingayen Gulf.
This assertion was made by Nicanor Melecio of the University of Luzon, who presented a study, complete with maps, disputing claims made by Philex Mines as well as the National Power Corporation (NPC) that there is no link between the Agno River and Dagupan City.
“This is a big lie,” said Melecio, a member of the Dagupan Water Quality Monitoring Task Force.
“This (hydrological connection) is known to all senior managers of the Agno River Flood Control Office–Project Management Office–located in Carmen, Rosales as early as 1991 when the Master Plan and the Project Feasibility for the Agno River Flood Control Project and the Allied Rivers Improvement Projects were completed by a Japanese consultancy firm,” Melecio added.
The issue has come to the fore after major floodings have been affecting Dagupan City and neighboring towns and the public perception is that the main cause has been the big volume of water released from the San Roque Dam whenever the latter opens its spillway gates.
Melecio presented maps, obtained from different government agencies and from consultants who prepared the plan for the Agno and Allied River Urgent Improvement Project (AARURP), indicating that the Pantal-Sinocalan Rivers flowing into Dagupan “is hydrologically connected to the Agno River”.
The water quality task force was created by Mayor Belen Fernandez in view of the alarming report that toxic heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium and arsenic coming from the mines in Benguet may have already found their way into the river systems of Dagupan and impact on aquaculture harvest.
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Melecio said the Pantal-Sinocalan River extends all the way to the Mitura River whose fountain head is located in San Manuel town where the San Roque Dam in Barangay San Roque, San Manuel is located.
He said there is also a big gap in the Agno River dike in San Vicente, San Manuel where the water passes through every time the San Roque Multi-purpose Dam releases excess water through its spillway gates when impounded water reaches its critical level.
The other hydrological connection, he said, is by way of the Caloocan River coming from Pantal River in Dagupan) and passing through Basing River going to the Limahong Channel, a man-made channel dug up by Chinese pirate Limahong, of the Agno River.
Apart from the flooding, Fernandez was further alarmed following the collapse of the mine tailings dam of Philex Mines in Benguet in August last year, washing down 20 million metric tons of tailings, some 13 million metric tons of which were estimated to have cascaded down to the upper Agno River and flowed into and now deposited at the reservoir of the San Roque Multi-purpose Dam.
The monitoring task force is headed by Dagupan City Planning Officer Romeo Rosario with members, aside from Melecio, from the academe, Department of Agriculture, Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.
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