Magat Dam operators ‘lacked anticipation’ in releasing water ahead of Ulysses

November 18, 2020 10:24pm

There was a lack of anticipation on the part of the operators of Magat Dam when they started releasing water days before the heavy rains brought by Typhoon Ulysses, a University of the Philippines experts said on Wednesday.

Mahar Lagmay, Executive Director of the UP Resilience Institute, said PAGASA’s forecast for Ulysses was “more or less accurate,” thus, the country, including the dam management, had several days to prepare for the typhoon.

However, more than 6,000 cubic meters of water per second were released, which was “very different” from the 200 cubic meter per second announced for those residing in the low-lying areas.

“Because if you have a lot of discharge, that is what makes the rivers swell. So we have to release it slowly so that when the floods happen downstream, it wouldn’t be that much. And we’re still trying to find out how much the dam contributed to the increase in the flood scenario,” Lagmay said on ANC.

“But what I know is that from the graphs that I have been looking at, the discharge was not very high days before, it was following the inflow or the input of water into the dam,” he added.

“So that means, to me, although it needs to be checked and re-checked, this is very preliminary, to me, there was lack of anticipation,” Lagmay said.

According to Lagmay, forecasts of rainfall amount could have been used to release a certain amount of discharge that could not reach more than 6,000 cubic meters per second.

Lagmay said there is a need for improvement of weather forecasts, and its use in order to plan ahead for dam discharges “and not during the time when water is already high.”

Residents of Cagayan had to go their roofs after the release of water from Magat Dam inundated most of the valley.

Cagayan officials over the weekend were reported to be looking at the possibility of suing the operator of Magat Dam for the yearly floods hitting the northern Luzon province.

For its part, the NIA said the gates of the Magat Dam had to be opened since last week amid heavy rains from Typhoon Ulysses to prevent from breaking and causing a bigger catastrophe.

This was echoed by President Rodrigo Duterte who said releasing water from dams was necessary to avoid a catastrophe. -NB, GMA News

Source: https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/764697/magat-dam-operators-lacked-anticipation-in-releasing-water-ahead-of-ulysses-says-up-expert/story/