Angat Dam break feared
Bulacan folk air concern a powerful quake could cause massive destruction
NORZAGARAY, Bulacan — All the earthquake drills in Metro Manila just might come to naught if the feared “Big One”— a powerful earthquake – comes and causes the collapse of the aging Angat Dam which is right along the West Valley Fault.
Following magnitude-7.8 earthquake that hit south of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean Saturday evening, village chiefs from various parts of Bulacan, particularly those along the Phivolcs’ recently released Atlas of the West Valley Fault line, asked Gov. Wilhelmino M. Sy-Alvarado about the Angat dam rehabilitation and what will happened if the dam collapses.
“The destruction it will cause is unimaginable if the 47-year-old Angat dam will collapse because not only the province of Bulacan
will be wiped out but also big parts of Pampanga and Metro Manila,” the governor said.
The governor has been calling the attention of the national government to the dangers that the old dam poses if it is hit by a magnitude-7.2 earthquake, since he was still a congressman, then a vice governor, and now as governor of Bulacan.
Alvarado told the village chiefs from the towns of Norzagaray, San Jose del Monte, and Dona Remedios Trinidad, that even if residents of Metro Manila survive the “Big One,” they will still face an equally deadly problem. ”They will die of thirst, for they will have no supply of potable water for a long time,” the governor said.
It is important for concerned agencies of the government to seriously consider dangers being poised by Angat dam, whose water reservoir is over the fault line, according to studies of experts, he said. Angat Dam supplies 97 percent of the potable water needs of Metro Manila, he said.
Angat Dam is located on the highest slope of the mountains in eastern Bulacan. From that height, he said, rampaging waters could be 30 meters high and wipe out villages along the way.
“Kapag nag-dam break, makakapagtago ka pa ba sa ilalim ng lamesa? Paano matatakasan ang rumaragasang tubig na simbilis ng bala at may dalang malalaking bato at iligal na pinutol na mga troso.” he asked.
Alvarado said that unless the 47-yearold dam is immediately repaired and strengthened, it will always be a proverbial “Sword of Damocles” hanging over the heads of Bulakenyos an the people of Metro Manila..
He said the people of Bulacan are once again appealing to the national government to send engineers and experts to prod the new owner of Angat Dam to immediately start the retrofitting and construction of additional spillways for the strengthening of the dam.
The people of Bulacan have been crying out for the immediate repair of the dam for so long now, in fact since 2008, he said.
Recently, Philvolcs discovered in their study that there’s a “splay” of the West Valley Fault under Angat Dam.
In Bulacan, they said, the West Valley Fault passes beneath barangays San Isidro, Ciudad Real, and San Roque in San Jose Del Monte City; mbarangay San Lorenzo in Norzagaray; and barangays Camachin, Kabayunan, Sapang Bulac, Bayabas, Camachile, and Pulong Sampalok in Doña Remedios Trinidad town.
In 2009, when he was vice governor and presiding officer of the Sanguniang Panglalawigan of Bulacan, Governor Alvarado said he called the attention of the national government to the delicate situation of the aging dam, calling it a disaster waiting to happen.
Alvarado said that even during the administration of former President Corazon Aquino, the government had already initiated studies, with the help of Japan, for the rehabilitation of Angat Dam.
Even in 1968, the year its operation started, dam officials and engineering experts had already detected leakages, he said. In August, 1986, a landslide occurred near the ex-batching plant site of the dam.
Alvarado said President Benigno S. Aquino III set aside 5.7 billion for the strengthening of the dam but the project was stalled after the Supreme Court ruled that the privatization of Angat dam was legal after Korean Water found a Filipino business firm as its partner.
It is stipulated under the contract between the new operator of the dam and the government, that K-Water will shoulder and initiate its rehabilitation and fortification -- which would be the first such repair since Angat Dam began operation in October, 1968.
Alvarado said that it is high time the government prods the new owners to immediately start its rehabilitation and implement the studies of Tonkin and Taylor, a European dam experts company commissioned by the Philippine government to study and formulate the fortification of the dam.
“No one can ever predict earthquakes, that is why we are constantly conducting drills, an education campaign, and contingency measures, and the people of Bulacan continue turning to prayer and love of God,” said Alvarado.