Loren looking into DOE's interim dam protocol

Senator Loren Legarda yesterday welcomed the effort of the Department of Energy (DOE) in coming up with an interim protocol intended to ensure the safe release of water from dams operated by the National Power Corporation (Napocor) during typhoons.

"I still have to peruse the technical details of the interim protocol as submitted to my office by Energy Secretary Angelo T. Reyes. But I recognize the reason cited by the DOE in promptly coming up with an interim protocol - that of a new typhoon expected to hit the country," said Loren.

Loren is chair of the Senate Oversight Committee on Climate Change conducting public hearings on the devastations caused by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng. Her view on the interim protocol was sought by Secretary Reyes in a letter to her office.

The senator stressed that a permanent protocol on the warning system and the proper release of water from dams, not only for those controlled by Napocor, must be forged with the consensus of experts, the government, all interested parties and the general public.

During last Friday's hearing of her committee, Loren had given Napocor until Nov. 30 to come up with a permanent protocol on the release of water from its dams.

Loren noted that the DOE interim protocol has the needed provisions on the issuance of clear warnings by the NPC and other government agencies well in advance of any water release by dams.

She said her committee, guided by geological and other experts, will look more thoroughly on the protocol, including the guideline issued by the DOE on the release of water specifically from the San Roque Dam in Pangasinan.

"The DOE had called for lowering water level at San Roque Dam from 280 meters above sea level to 278 MASL, afterwhich further relese of 500 cubic meters per second of water is mandated in the event of typhoon to ensure that the 280-MASL level is no longer breached," she said. The release by the San Roque Dam of 5,000cms of water at the height of Typhoon Pepeng midnight of Oct. 6, when water level at the dam reached 285 MASL had been largely blamed for the flood that iundated a big part of Pangasinan.

During her committee's hearings, Loren had emphasized that the gradual release of the water from the San Roque Dam could have prevented the disaster that struck Pangasinan and other parts of Northern Luzon when the Agno river was swamped by the sudden release of water from the dam.

In yesterday's Kapihan sa Manila Hotel, Loren said that the effects of climate change are now felt strongly in the Philippines as well as in other nations, and that governments must show political will to mitigate its effects.

Climate change is largely blamed on global warming caused in part by the increase in carbon emission by man.