Binga Dam nears capacity, opens gates amid sustained monsoon rain

The map (left) shows some dams in Luzon. The National Power Corporation has reported that the spillway gates of the Binga Dam in Benguet have been opened as continuous raid raised the water level in its reservoir to near its critical limit. INQUIRER FILE

DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines — The Binga Dam in Benguet province began releasing water on Monday night (Aug. 15) as continuous rain raised the water level in its reservoir to near its critical capacity, a National Power Corp. (Napocor) official said on Tuesday (Aug. 16).

Onofre Ponce, Napocor principal engineer, said the dam’s spillway gates were opened at 6 p.m. to ease the water level in the reservoir.

The southwest monsoon, or habagat, has dumped moderate to heavy rain over Luzon since last week and has put pressure on reservoirs in the northern and central parts of the island.

Binga dam can accommodate water up to 575 meters above sea level (masl). As of 6 a.m., Tuesday, the water level had reached 573.32 masl—1.68 meters from its critical limit.

At 9 a.m., Tuesday, three of the dam’s spillway gates were opened half-a-meter each and were spilling water into the Agno River at 245 cubic meters per second (cms). One cms is 1,000 liters or five drums of water per second.

The Agno River, which traverses 16 Pangasinan towns and cities, feeds the San Roque Dam in San Manuel town, before exiting to the Lingayen Gulf.

At 6 a.m. Tuesday, the water level at the San Roque Dam was 235.68 masl, which is 44.32 meters below its maximum level of 280 masl./rga