Napocor rejects calls to shut down San Roque Dam

The state-run National Power Corporation (Napocor) on Tuesday rejected a call by Pangasinan mayors to stop the operations of San Roque Multipurpose Project (SRMP) for fear that it might collapse and devastate the province. Dennis Gana, spokesman of Napocor, which owns San Roque Dam, told reporters in a press briefing in Malacañang that decommissioning the dam would deprive millions of its benefits. Among the services that the dam provides, according to Gana, are employment-related activities; irrigation water for Pangasinan; power generation of 400-500 megawatts "at any given time," which contributes to the Luzon Grid; and its flood mitigation capability.

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The nation's largest dam provoked outrage among residents when it released enormous volumes of water on October 7 and 8 at the height of Typhoon Pepeng, aggravating the floods but perhaps preventing the collapse of the dam wall, a far worse catastrophe. In its defense, Napocor has told various fora, including Senate hearings, that no one predicted the record rainfall that quickly filled up San Roque's reservoir, compelling dam managers to suddenly release the water.
For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV Located in the towns of San Manuel and San Nicolas, Pangasinan and Itogon in Benguet, the SRMP provides year-round irrigation for 70,800 hectares of farmland downstream largely in Pangasinan, but including parts of Nueva Ecija and Tarlac. It functions as a flood control structure by trapping sediment caused by erosion of small-scale mining upstream. "That’s the cost of your call for decommissioning. And you have to answer to the financing institution that lent us money for this project. How are we going to pay if it’s not earning? Those are the things you have to consider," Gana said. At a meeting on Monday, Pangasinan mayors called for the decommissioning of the dam. Gana disputed the local officials' claim that the dam poses great a danger because it is located near a fault line and is vulnerable to an earthquake. "In the first place, I don’t know if the dam really lies near a fault line. We do have a dam that is near a fault line, which is the Angat Dam (in Bulacan). The fault near it is the west valley fault but it’s not active now," Gana said, adding that the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) has already said that the fault is locked and does not pose any threat to the dam structure. Malacañang expressed misgivings about the mayors’ proposal. Like Gana, deputy presidential spokesman Lorelei Fajardo was concerned over the benefits that the country would lose from decommissioning the multi-purpose dam. "We have to look into (it) in assessing what went wrong, if there is indeed someone liable and accountable. We cannot be rash," Fajardo said. What’s important is to assure residents that the disaster that befell the province will not happen again, she said. Instead of pointing fingers, Gana said, the agency and local government officials should just work together to prevent a similar disaster in the future, especially now that another storm is threatening the country. "We need their help in convincing people to heed the warnings… help us to convince people to go to higher ground or evacuate. They should cooperate and help us monitor water downstream and its effects," Gana said. - GMANews.TV