Time to create a national dam safety program

GMA News Online received the following comment from a US-based dam safety engineer whose mother is trapped by flooding in Bulacan. He withheld his name. He says the Philippines must create a National Dam Safety Program. A few hours ago, I spoke on the phone with my crying and helpless mother in Hagonoy where I grew up and where the flooding now is almost six feet. Most of my kababarrios are desperate knowing that another typhoon is coming. They are desperate for food and help. I could only encourage my mother and emphasize that the most important is their safety. Material things can be replaced but not their lives. As a Bulacan-born dam safety engineer in the US, I have emailed government officials in the Philippines and highlighted the importance of creating a National Dam Safety Program in the Philippines. That was even before typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng ravaged the Philippines, which caused severe flooding in Pangasinan. Flood damage was aggravated due to the excessive release of water from the San Roque Dam spillway (based on the report by the investigative committee created under the Department of Energy). Years passed — no action, no news. I find it hard to believe that until now there is no agency in the Philippines that has the authority to manage the safety of dams. In the US, dams are regulated by state and federal governments and if any dams, whether government or privately owned, caused or has the potential to cause any danger to the public, mandatory actions are taken to eliminate the potential risk. State and federal laws are implemented to protect people from the danger of failure, mis-operation, and flooding caused by constructing a dam. We are spending millions of dollars to monitor, evaluate, maintain and even retrofit our dams and design them to a level where potential risk is minimized or eliminated. Why? Because safety of the people and not profit is our first priority. The lack of technical expertise, instrumentation, regulation, and political will are main problems that need to be addressed in the Philippines. In recent news, Napocor’s Dennis Gana claimed that the release from Angat Dam is not the cause of flooding in Bulacan. I can only agree with Napocor’s Dennis Gana if he can prove with hydrological and hydraulic analyses showing that any release they made did not result in incremental rise/damage to already flooded areas that put people's live in danger and resulted in severe economic and property loss. If proven, they must be held liable and the government, whether local or national, can start implementing a law that would require dam operators to evaluate the risk for operating their dams — whether due to spill or potential failure. If the results showed severe consequences, then the government should require them to retrofit or change their operations to provide safety to people living downstream of their dams. A good question to ask Napocor is the level of safety they have for the dams they operate. Unless they have the technical know-how about the design and structural stability of their dams, they can only speculate and release water that the dam itself can still contain. Good hydrological and hydraulic analyses will help them to forecast and manage water to prevent the excessive and unavoidable release of water. If any of their dams were not designed for a 100-year storm then the government needs to do something to modify the dam or its operation so that a higher level of safety can be achieved. Sadly, this is the existing system that is currently implemented in the Philippines. Nobody is accountable! Millions if not billions of pesos were lost and will be lost. There will be loss of lives and property, and environmental consequences but after a week, a few months, a year from now everyone will forget about this calamity. No action will be taken until another typhoon will come to devastate the same places. When will we learn? - GMA News