Dams safe as ‘Ambo’ heads north
FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – Water levels in major dams in Luzon are still at safe levels as Tropical Storm “Ambo” makes its way through the country Friday.
Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) has already raised signal number 1 in several provinces as “Ambo” heads towards North of the country.
Jason Bausa, Pagasa hydrologist, said in a phone interview that there have been only little changes in the water levels of major dams in Luzon as of Friday evening.
He said that they are monitoring the amount of rainfall that the storm will dump along the rivers and tributaries which feed the dams. Though the eye of the storm was not likely to make landfall, the outer clouds will definitely cover part of Luzon, he said.
“Ambo” was expected to bring 15-25 millimeters per hour of rainfall, considered as heavy, within the 500 km diameter of the Tropical Storm.
Major dams in Luzon are the Angat and Ipo dams in Bulacan, La Mesa dam in Metro Manila, Ambuklao dam in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Binga dam in Benguet, San Roque dam in Agno, Pantabangan dam in Nueva Ecija, Magat dam in Cagayan, and Caliraya dam in Laguna.
As of 4 p.m., only Binga dam has a gate open at 0.8 meters even though the water level was 0.07 meters below the Normal High Water Level (NHWL). All other dams have not made any significant changes in water level over the past 24 hours.
