Deretsahan
San Roque Dam officials must be transparent
By Bebot Villar
AS OF Wednesday last week, the water level at the San Roque Dam in San Manuel, Pangasinan was still rising and it was already approaching 280 meters above sea level (masl), which the San Roque officials refer to as the dam’s flood season high water level.
Tanong ng mga nabaha nating mga kababayan sa Sta. Barbara, Calasiao at Dagupan City: Nagre-release na ba ng tubig ang dam? Sagot ng taga-National Power Corporation (Napocor): “Hindi pa po. Sarado pa ang mga spillway gates ng dam.”
The Napocor official went on to say that what they did was to put the San Roque Power Corporation (SRPC) in a “must-run” status starting at 9 a.m. last Sunday to enable SRPC to “maximize” its power generation.
What the Napocor did not say during radio and television interviews was what a “must-run” operation means because the dam is actually releasing water a lot more than what it normally releases, kaya lang, not through spillway gates kundi sa turbina ng SRPC!
Ang SRPC ay isang peaking plant. It means, it only generates power tuwing peak hours only – from 9 a.m. till 3 p.m. at mula 6 p.m. till 8 p.m. ! Eight hours lamang na operation in which case ang lumalabas lamang na tubig dito ay 87 cubic meters per second (cms).
Kapag nasa ‘must-run’ status na, it runs for 24 hours a day and will generate power batay sa maximum capacity nito. Last week, sinabi ng Napocor na ang SRPC ay nagpo-produce ng 388 megawatts of electricity at naglalabas ng tubig na 280cms, that’s triple the normal volume of water being released!
The objective of Napocor is to lower the level of water ng tubig sa dam para may pagsisidlan pa ng tubig in case another typhoon strikes, Sabi nila, kailangang ibaba ang tubig sa 270 masl. From almost 280 masl down to 270 masl – that’s a lot of water!
We cannot question how they manage the dam. Sila po ang mga experts diyan. I only wish na sana ipaliwanag sa taong- bayan ang kanilang mga ginagawa! Huwag niyong sabihin walang release ng tubig when in fact they are releasing a lot more from the turbine!
Because takot ang mga nasa San Roque Dam na they will be blamed for the flooding in Sta. Barbara, Calasiao at Dagupan, they always say sa Agno River napupunta ang tubig mula sa San Roque Dam. Hanggang ngayon nga, todo tanggi pa rin ang San Roque Dam na may kinalaman sila sa malawakang pagbaha sa Pangasinan noong October 2009.
Kung hindi pa rin nawawala ang pagkabahala ng mga taga-Dagupan and neighboring towns na maaaring tumaas ang baha sa kanilang mga bakuran dahil nag-release ng tubig ang dam, this is because hindi nagpapaliwanag nang mabuti ang mga dam officials.
Ang dapat nilang pagsikapan ay kung papaano patutunayan sa mga takot na mamamayan na hindi sila ang dahilan ng baha. The burden of proof is on the dam officials.
It will take some more time, but it can be done.
* * * *
Very interesting ang datos na ipinakita sa atin about the number of inmates at the provincial jail in Lingayen at ang mga kasong kinasasangkutan nila.
These are just raw data but they are really indicators of what’s happening. For instance, of the 253 prisoners who are there this month, 114 or almost half of them are facing illegal drugs cases, 53, or about one-fifth of them, are charged with rape, and 53 are facing murder cases.
From these alone, marami nang puwedeng mahalaw na mga kuwento. Firstly, the data clearly shows that illegal drugs remain a big problem in Pangasinan. Sa dami ng mga nasampahan ng kaso, it means na hindi na madali para for the drug traffickers to operate because nakabantay na nang husto ang mga law enforcers at ang community.
Another indicator is the fact that the high number of rape and murder cases are drug-related. In our country, 80 percent of heinous crimes are also drug-related. This means that people kill or rape because they are under the influence of drugs!
There are other indicators but we need to conduct further studies and analyses to draw the right conclusions.
In our campaign laban sa illegal drugs, malaki ang tulong na nagagawa ng mga datos na ganito. For instance, the data can already help us identify kung saang mga barangay sa Pangasinan pumupunta ang supply ng illegal na droga sa Pangasinan.
Dahil sa laki ng pera sa illegal drugs, the drug traffickers will not stop at anything hanggang di sila mahuli at makulong. The only sad thing about it is we have a number of corrupt, law enforcers na pumipikit kapag nasilaw na sa kinang ng pilak. They forget na sa kanilang pagpapalusot sa illegal drugs, maraming kabataan ang masisira ang future at maraming buhay ang maaari ring mawala.
Kaya tayo sa Dangerous Drugs Board, puspusan ang coordination with other law enforcement agencies at local government units para mas pag-ibayuhin pa ang kampanya laban sa illegal drugs.
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