4 Luzon dams continue to discharge water

MANILA, Philippines – As severe flooding paralyzed Metro Manila Tuesday, several major dams in Luzon continued to release excess water in the afternoon, the state weather bureau said in its report.

As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, Ipo dam in Bulacan, Ambuklao and Binga dam in Benguet, and San Roque Dam in Pangasinan, opened their gates, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).

Since the La Mesa dam in Quezon City does not have any gate, excess water will overflow automatically when water level hits the spilling mark of 80.15 meters. Its current water level was measured 80.50 meters.

Ipo dam released about 200.6 cubic meters a second Tuesday. Its water level hit 100.89 meters, or 0.09 meters over the spilling level was 100.8 meters.

Ambuklao dam, meanwhile, discharged 280 cubic meters of water per second. Its water level was 751.92 meters, or 0.08 meters short of the spilling level of 752 meters.

Water from the Ambuklao dam flows downstream into the Binga dam which has a water level of 574.02 meters. Its spilling level is 575 meters. Binga dam had opened three gates at a total height of 2.5 meters and was releasing 350 cubic meters of water per second.

San Roque dam, which sits downstream from Binga dam, has opened two gates, releasing a total of 480 cubic meters per second. Its water level was 282.93 meters, more than three meters above the spilling level of 280 meters.

The dams have opened their gates as early as two days ago to release excess water accumulated from continuous rains initially brought by tropical storm “Gener.”