Farmers alarmed as Angat Dam falls below critical level
CITY OF MALOLOS—The water level of Angat Dam fell below the critical threshold of 160 meters above sea level (masl) on Tuesday, raising fresh concerns among farmers who depend on the reservoir for irrigation as the wet planting season begins.
Data from the Bulacan Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) showed the reservoir’s elevation dropped to 159.97 masl, down from 160.63 masl on Monday. In recent months, the dam’s water level has been declining by as much as half a meter to 1 meter daily.
The reservoir stood at 167.62 masl on June 15 and 172.75 masl on June 1. It remained above the 180-masl low operating level at 183.69 masl on May 1 and measured 196.22 masl on April 3 and 197.13 masl on March 31.
In January, Angat Dam was at its normal high-water level of more than 211 masl, near its spilling level. The reservoir’s normal high-water elevation is 210 masl during the rainy season and 212 masl during the dry season, when excess water is released.
With the reservoir now below the 160-masl low critical level, farmers fear there will be little or no irrigation water available for the start of the July wet-season cropping.
Relying on rain
Carlos Dimaapi, president of the Angat-Maasim River Irrigation System (Amris), said farmers would have to rely almost entirely on rainfall because they do not expect irrigation releases from the National Irrigation Administration.
“We will just have to rely on the rains. We can only hope and pray that the weather disturbance will bring enough rainfall,” Dimaapi told the Inquirer on Tuesday.
Angat Dam supplies water for Metro Manila’s domestic needs as its top priority, while irrigation for agriculture ranks fourth among its water allocation priorities.
Amris is composed of more than 22,000 farmers cultivating about 27,000 hectares of rice fields across 17 towns in Bulacan and four towns in Pampanga.
Mel Domingo, a farmers’ leader in the City of Malolos, said many farmers in Bulacan’s southwest irrigation service area would likely postpone planting from July to August because of the expected shortage of irrigation water.
“We will rely heavily on rainfall. We will start planting in August and hope that the rains will replenish Angat Dam in time to provide irrigation for our standing crops in November,” Domingo said.
