No spill expected from La Mesa Dam

Water at La Mesa Dam was steady and below spilling level on Thursday after a day of rains, said Jeric T. Sevilla, corporate communications chief at Manila Water Co. Inc.

Citing the water services provider’s monitoring report, Sevilla said the water level at La Mesa Dam was at 79.69 meters as of 8 a.m. Thursday, compared to 79.46 meters at 8 a.m. on Wednesday.

As of 3 p.m. Thursday, water elevation at La Mesa had remained fairly steady at 79.71 meters from the 2 p.m. reading.

The dam’s spilling level is at 80.15 meters.

Data posted on the official website of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) showed that as of 6 a.m. Thursday, the water level at La Mesa was at 79.68 meters, slightly up from 79.45 meters at 6 a.m. Wednesday. The data posted remained unchanged as of 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

La Mesa Dam was designed such that water spills over automatically when the 80.15-meter water level is breached.

The excess water flows into the Tullahan River, which flows through the northern part of Quezon City, as well as the cities of Malabon, Valenzuela and Caloocan.

The river drains into Manila Bay.

The heavy rains were not enough to increase the water level at Angat Dam.

On Thursday, the water level at Angat was recorded at 191.05 meters above sea level (masl). This was lower than the 191.47 masl recorded at the end of May.

Angat’s spilling level is 212 masl.

However, water elevation at Ipo Dam reached 99.65 masl, near its spilling level of 101 masl.

The rains also were not strong enough to significantly increase water levels in the Ambuklao and Binga dams in Benguet, said Ronald Villa of the Office of Civil Defense.