DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines-–The Pangasinan government on Thursday asked officials and police chiefs in towns along the Agno River to evacuate residents after the San Roque multipurpose dam in San Manuel town opened all its six spillway gates, at a height of two meters each, to release excess water.

In a media advisory at about 1 p.m. Thursday, provincial administrator Rafael Baraan said the water released from the dam, which would be at a rate of 2,500 cubic meters per second (CMS), would reach Barangay Carmen in Rosales town after eight hours.

“We urge immediate evacuation of families living along the Agno River and in other low-lying areas,” Baraan said.

Agno River is Pangasinan’s major river system, traversing 17 towns and a city, from San Manuel to Lingayen, as it flows from the Cordillera mountains and drains into the Lingayen Gulf.

In an earlier advisory, Tom Valdez, vice president for corporate social responsibility of the San Roque multipurpose project, said the water level in the dam’s reservoir reached 288.3 meters above sea level (MASL), very close to its maximum level of 290 MASL.

“We will be slowly increasing release [of water] to level off with the inflow, which is already [more than] 2,000 CMS,” Valdez said.

At 9 a.m. Thursday, the flood forecasting and warning system for dam operations of the National Power Corp. ordered the opening of the dam’s six gates because of the increasing inflow from the Binga and Ambuklao dams upstream in Benguet.

At that time, the two dams were already releasing excess water at 1,004 CMS.