Magat Dam's water level hits its lowest this year

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya , Philippines  – A huge drop in rice production is feared next year as the water level of the Magat Dam in Ramon, Isabela has reached its lowest this year. 

This apprehension is high among farmers of thousands of hectares of prime agricultural lands especially in Isabela, the country’s topmost rice-producing province, that mainly depend on the dam for irrigation. 

Engineer Saturnino Tenedor of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) said the water level at the three-decade-old dam has dropped to as low as 180 meters or 12 meters below the critical level – this year’s all-time low. 

Tenedor attributed the low water level to the El Niño phenomenon.

He, however, said farmers have nothing to fear since alternative systems of water distribution will be put in place to ensure that farmlands are provided with sufficient irrigation.

Magat’s low water level has prompted the NIA-Magat River Integrated Irrigation System to cut down on water distributed to inland fishponds.

“Fishpond operators who have been depending on water from the Magat Dam have to find alternative sources for their water,” Tenedor said.

“One main cause of the low level of water in the dam is the lack of precipitation (rainfall) over the dam site,” he said.

Just a few months ago, Magat’s water level reached an all-time high of 191 meters or two meters below the critical level due to continuous rains over the area. 

The irrigation component of the Magat Dam, once Asia’s biggest multi-purpose dam, which is still being managed by the NIA, is a major source of irrigation for some 80,000 hectares of rice and corn fields in Isabela and parts of Cagayan and Quirino provinces.

The management of the dam’s hydroelectric power component, which provides at least 350 megawatts to the Luzon grid, was sold to the Filipino-Norwegian consortium SN Aboitiz Power for $530 million in 2006.