Accident forces temporary closure of 2 Benguet dams

An accidental fall on Tuesday afternoon forced the temporary closure of two of the nine multi-purpose dams in Luzon, but one of the two dams resumed operations Wednesday morning. Radio dzBB’s Mao dela Cruz reported the Ambuklao and Binga Dams in Benguet province were forced to suspend operations after a report saying that a still-unidentified man fell into an area covered by the 2 dams around 4 p.m. Tuesday. The dzBB report quoted National Grid Corp. dispatcher Leo Bugarin as saying that search operation is ongoing for the man who fell around the dams’ areas. But as of Wednesday morning, Ambuklao had resumed operations while Binga remained closed, the report said. Ambuklao is located in Bokod town while Binga is in Itogon town. As of Wednesday morning, Ambuklao, San Roque, Pantabangan and Magat were open while Angat, La Mesa, Caliraya, Ipo and Binga were closed. The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) mentioned the “accident" in its 7 p.m. report Tuesday but did not give further details. It only said Ambuklao and Binga dams had to temporarily close their gates due to an "accident." As of posting time, no other details were available about the reported accident. But still, the NDCC noted that as of Tuesday night, Ambuklao’s reservoir water level is at 741.26 meters, 10.74 meters below the spilling level. Binga’s reservoir level is at 567.65 meters, 7.35 meters below the 575-meter spilling level. A controversy has emerged over the management of the releases of excess water from the dams after many towns in Pangasinan had been flooded, believed to have been caused by San Roque Dam’s water releases at the height of typhoon “Pepeng" (Parma). - GMANews.TV