Rains continue to fill Angat Dam

MALOLOS – The water level in Angat Dam continues to increase due to rains spawned by the northeast monsoon.

Monitoring by the Bulacan provincial disaster risk reduction and management office showed that from 187.80 meters on Tuesday to 188 meters on Wednesday, the dam’s water level rose to 188.14 meters yesterday, or an increase of 0.34 meters in the past three days.

Angat Dam’s water level yesterday was 8.14 meters above its minimum operating level of 180 meters. It was 23.86 meters below the ideal level of 212 meters.

Heavy rains from a tropical storm to be locally named Tisoy when it enters the Philippine area of responsibility this weekend are expected to raise the water level in Angat Dam.

The state weather bureau said Tisoy could fall over the Angat watershed.

The National Water Resources Board had cut down the water allocation for Metro Manila’s domestic consumption from 46 cubic meters per second to 36 cms when the dam breached the critical level of 160 meters. The move resulted in rotational water service interruptions in Metro Manila.

Angat Dam supplies 97 percent of Metro Manila’s water needs.

Allocation for Metro Manila residents increased to 40 cms in September when the dam’s water level exceeded 180 cms.

However, rains spawned by Typhoons Ramon and Sarah this month failed to increase the water level.

Authorities had earlier warned that rice farmers in Bulacan and Pampanga would also be affected if water supply from Angat Dam would not normalize.

Felix Robles, head of the water control and coordinating unit of Bustos Dam, said allocation for irrigation is good only for this month.

Bustos Dam supplies irrigation water to 12,000 hectares of rice fields in Bulacan and 9,000 hectares in Pampanga. The bulk of the allocation comes from Angat Dam.