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P5.7 billion ordered released for Angat Dam rehabilitation By: Emil Gamos, Philippine News Agency June 9, 2012 6:36 PM

InterAksyon.com The online news portal of TV5 MALOLOS CITY, Bulacan -- After 43 years, the rock-built Angat dam will be rehabilitated and strengthened. Governor Wilhelmino M. Sy-Alvarado on Friday said President Benigno S. Aquino III has ordered the release of P5.7 billion for the rehabilitation of the more than three decades old Angat dam in Norzagaray town after a technical working team of the Manila Water and Sewerage System (MWSS) finished their six-month study and evaluation of the structural integrity of the dam. The governor said that, according to MWSS administrator Gerry Esquivel, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has already approved the said budget and has set the bidding of the project next month (July) for the three-year rehabilitation of the Angat dam. Esquivel has earlier echoed the concern of Governor Alvarado that the 43-year-old dam is already weak and needs rehabilitation. He said the MWSS technical working group agreed with the findings of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) that the dam is sitting along the west Marikina fault line and cannot withstand a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. Unabated logging and mining activities along the Angat dam watershed area has also compromised the structural integrity of the dam, according to the Sagip Sierra Madre Environment Society. Esquivel also said rehabilitation work at Angat dam will not disrupt the delivery of water supply of Metro Manila, which gets its bulk from the dam.

Alvarado thanked President Aquino for allotting funds and ordering the immediate rehabilitation and strengthening of the dam. He said Phivolcs director Rene Solidum has earlier confirmed that the Marikina fault line is underneath the dams reservoir and poses danger to its structural integrity. Alvarado also reiterated the creation of an integrated management approach on the operation and management of Angat, Ipo, and Bustos dams which are all nestling in the province of Bulacan. The governor has also called for a no-nonsense campaign to stop illegal logging and illegal mining activities at the watershed area of the dam.

MWSS to get second opinion on Angat Dam safety Philippine Daily Inquirer 10:34 pm | Friday, June 22nd, 2012 8 260 14 CITY OF MALOLOSThe Manila Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) is open to other experts evaluating the condition of the 44-year-old Angat Dam, to support the feasibility study by a US-based firm for its P5-billion rehabilitation, MWSS Administrator Gerardo Esquivel said on Thursday. But he said tapping independent experts should not stall or hamper the rehabilitation process. We need all the help we can get, but we dont want it to be the analysis [that leads to] paralysis [of the modernization project], which is awaiting President Aquinos approval, he said. Esquivel spoke at the Summit on Effective Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation Program sponsored by the Bulacan provincial government and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines. The Angat Dam supplies 97 percent of Metro Manilas water and provides irrigation for most farmlands in Central Luzon. Felicisima Mungcal, head of the provincial disaster risk reduction management council office, said the province intends to tap Roderick de la Cruz, a safety engineer who migrated from Hagonoy town to California, who plans to return under the Balik-Scientist program of the Department of Science and Technology. De la Cruz sent Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado a paper detailing his proposals for operating the Angat Dam, and the downstream facilities, Ipo Dam and Bustos Dam. He said he was offering his consultancy services for free.

Sy-Alvarado said he was for the immediate rehabilitation of the Angat Dam but stressed that other studies should reinforce the findings of a government feasibility report completed in November last year. I understand what the governor is undertaking because he wants to secure the future of this dam But what we are saying here is we are not doing [the rehabilitation] as a band-aid remedy, but as a [long term solution], Esquivel said. He added: I know [the reports of a small fissure or crack along the Angat Dam walls] but there is nothing to worry about. [The rehabilitation will introduce] complete remediation and [modern] instrumentation. A lot of this is science. The rehabilitation, he said, would allow the dam to accommodate an additional volume of water equivalent to 400 to 600 million milliliters per day. It would also raise the reservoirs spilling elevation from 210 meters above sea level to 216 masl, he said. Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon

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