MWSS to get second opinion on Angat Dam safety

CITY OF MALOLOS—The Manila Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) is open to other experts evaluating the condition of the 44-year-old Angat Dam, to support the feasibility study by a US-based firm for its P5-billion rehabilitation, MWSS Administrator Gerardo Esquivel said on Thursday.

But he said tapping independent experts should not stall or hamper the rehabilitation process. “We need all the help we can get, but we don’t want it to be the analysis [that leads to] paralysis [of the modernization project], which is awaiting President Aquino’s approval,” he said.

Esquivel spoke at the Summit on Effective Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation Program sponsored by the Bulacan provincial government and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.

The Angat Dam supplies 97 percent of Metro Manila’s water and provides irrigation for most farmlands in Central Luzon.

Felicisima Mungcal, head of the provincial disaster risk reduction management council office, said the province intends to tap Roderick de la Cruz, a safety engineer who migrated from Hagonoy town to California, who plans to return under the Balik-Scientist program of the Department of Science and Technology.

De la Cruz sent Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado a paper detailing his proposals for operating the Angat Dam, and the downstream facilities, Ipo Dam and Bustos Dam. He said he was offering his consultancy services for free.

Sy-Alvarado said he was for the immediate rehabilitation of the Angat Dam but stressed that other studies should reinforce the findings of a government feasibility report completed in November last year.

“I understand what the governor is undertaking because he wants to secure the future of this dam … But what we are saying here is we are not doing [the rehabilitation] as a band-aid remedy, but as a [long term solution],” Esquivel said.

He added: “I know [the reports of a small fissure or crack along the Angat Dam walls] but there is nothing to worry about. [The rehabilitation will introduce] complete remediation and [modern] instrumentation. A lot of this is science….”

The rehabilitation, he said, would allow the dam to accommodate an additional volume of water equivalent to 400 to 600 million milliliters per day.

It would also raise the reservoir’s spilling elevation from 210 meters above sea level to 216 masl, he said.  Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon