The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) has announced the cessation of water-spilling operations at Ipo Dam as of Saturday morning, following a period of heavy rainfall.
Josephine Salazar, Central Luzon Director of NIA, confirmed the halt in operations, stating, “As of 9 a.m. on Saturday, the water-spilling operation of Ipo Dam has been stopped.”
Salazar noted that the local inflow to Bustos Dam from its upstream river was recorded at 64 cubic meters per second (CMS).
Consequently, Bustos Dam’s Sluice Gates 1 and 2 were closed at 10 a.m. with the water elevation at 16.91 meters.
Sluice Gate 3 remains raised at 3 meters, continuing to release 64 CMS of water into the downstream river system before it flows into Manila Bay, the NIA official said.
In a related development, the water elevation at Angat Dam improved by more than a meter on Saturday morning.
Retired Col. Manuel Lukban, chief of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office of Bulacan, reported that the dam’s water elevation was at 201.70 meters as of 11 a.m. on Saturday, while Ipo Dam stood at 100.36 meters and Bustos Dam at 16.91 meters.
“Angat Dam’s water level is 8.30 meters below its 210-meter normal high water elevation for the rainy season or 10.30 meters below its normal high water elevation of 212 meters for the dry season,” Lukban explained.
Additionally, the water elevation of Ipo Dam has decreased to 100.36 meters, just below its spilling level of 101.00 meters, while Bustos Dam’s water level has dropped to 16.91 meters, which is below its 17.35-meter spilling level.
The preemptive release of water from Ipo and Bustos Dams was a response to heavy rains brought on by severe tropical storm “Kristine” (international name “Trami”) over the past several days.
Angat Dam plays a critical role, supplying more than 90 percent of Metro Manila’s raw water needs, contributing additional hydropower energy to the Luzon Grid, and providing irrigation water to about 25,000 hectares of irrigated rice farms in Bulacan and parts of Pampanga.