Rains dumped by typhoon not enough to raise Magat level
TUGUEGARAO CITY—Supertyphoon “Francisco” (international name: Mekkhala) might have brought rains to northern Luzon, but the downpour hardly made a dent to fill the receding water level at Magat Dam in Ramon, Isabela.
“Negative so far as we even have an average of 80-centimeter recession of water daily due to lack of heavy rains at the watershed,” Edwin Viernes, forecasting chief of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), told the Inquirer on Tuesday.
“The typhoon would recurve, as [the weather bureau] Pagasa (Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration) pointed out, and it barely brought an impact,” he said, referring to a pre-assessment meeting on Monday with Pagasa.
The reservoir’s water level stood at 168.93 meters above sea level (masl) at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, receding from the 169.52 masl on Monday and even lower than the 170.26 masl recorded on June 21 and 170.82 masl on June 20, the NIA records showed.
While Cagayan and Isabela provinces experienced intermittent rains, these hardly filled the dam basin, Viernes said.
The dam’s water, he said, may even reach a “critical low level” by July 15 if there is no reduction of irrigation water deliveries to palay farms in Isabela, Quirino and parts of Ifugao.
“Farmers continue to have their farms watered since May 15 and ready for the wet cropping season,” Viernes noted.
