Isabela's Magat Dam nearing spilling level

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines  – The water level of the Magat Dam along the Isabela-Ifugao border inched closer yesterday to its spilling level, prompting authorities to continue releasing water.

As of 1 p.m. yesterday, amid the intermittent rains, the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) said the dam’s water level had reached 193.12 meters, less than a meter short of the spilling level of 194 meters. 

NIA engineer Saturnino Tenedor said they have been releasing excess water from the dam’s reservoir to avoid reaching the critical water elevation, which might cause possible damage to the dam’s facilities. 

“The outflow is still controlled as we only opened one gate with a total opening of two meters,” said Tenedor.

He clarified though that the floods that hit Isabela and nearby Cagayan recently were not due to their releasing excess water from the dam but due to several days of rainfall.

“The dam was definitely not the main cause of the flooding but the non-stop rains,” he said. 

The three-decade-old Magat Dam, once Asia’s biggest hydroelectric dam, provides irrigation to some 80,000 hectares of farmlands in Isabela and parts of Cagayan and Quirino.

It also contributes a maximum of 350 megawatts of power to the Luzon grid.

The dam’s irrigation facility is being managed by the state-run NIA, while its power component is owned and operated by the Filipino-Norwegian consortium SN Aboitiz Power, which bought the power facility from the government three years ago.