The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan today supported the filing of charges against San Roque Dam officials even as it called for the decommissioning of the dam as a long term response to the problem of flooding.
“Both public officials and private operators of the dam must be held accountable for the sudden and devastating release of water which flooded most of Pangasinan in a matter of hours, giving people very little time to be evacuated. The latest flooding shows the inherent problem with the dam, that it is not really a flood control system,” said Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr.
“Data from PAG-ASA shows that there was basis to release water as early as October 4 when the water levels breached the 280 meter mark. It appears the interest of power generation won out over public safety. The people at the San Roque Power Corporation and the National Power Corporation now must be held accountable ,” Reyes said.
The umbrella group said it will be consulting with its local chapter in Pangasinan on the possibility of joining legal action against dam officials.
The more than 1 kilometer long San Roque Dam is considered one of the biggest in the world and can hold up to 850 million cubic meters of water. It has a surface area of about 12.8 km2. Its construction was funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) Bayan and the Cordillera People’s Alliance have long opposed the construction and operation of the dam.
“We are calling for the decommissioning of the dam. It is not safe because of the basic contradiction between flood control and power generation. The latter requires high water levels, while flood control requires reducing the dam’s water levels. So long as this is the system, public safety will always take a back seat to profits. Decommissioning the dam is thus the long-term response,” he said.
Bayan said that decommissioning could give the national government time to find other viable energy sources.
Obscurantism of DOST
The militant group also assailed Napocor and the Department of Science and Technology for saying that there would have been flooding anyway, whether or not the dam was opened because of the huge volume of rainfall brought by Pepeng.
“This is obscurantism intended to absolve government from any liability. Yes flooding was inevitable, but the scenario would not have been as bad if there was no mega-structure artificially holding back billions of cubic meters of water. And if the dam was opened earlier, this could have gradually released water and given the people some lead time to evacuate and prepare for contingencies. What happened instead was that the sudden rush of water, at a rate of 5,000 cubic meters per second, gave the public very little time to respond and evacuate,” Reyes said.
“Napocor’s defense that it wanted to conserve water for power generation is unacceptable in the face of the massive devastation that we witnessed,” he added.
Bayan also said that the response from Napocor and DOST appeared to cover up government’s lack of oversight over San Roque Dam.
“What is outrageous is that there hardly seems to be any national government intervention in the whole incident. The decision to open the gates was left to the San Roque Power Corporation. No one from the National Disaster Coordinating Council, the Department of Energy, or any other national government agency was on top of the situation. This is an apparent failure on the part of national government,” Reyes added. ###
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