ANGELES CITY – Some 500 sacks of salt for cloud seeding operations since Jan. 20 have failed to produce rains over Angat dam whose water level has further ebbed to 198 meters, or merely 18 meters above the critical level.
Oscar Sangangbayan, agriculturist from the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM), said the cloud seeding operations started last Jan. 20 and continued up to last March 3, but they failed to condense clouds that could produce rains.
“Angat dam’s level still continued to ebb,” he said. Latest report from the Provincial Council Coordinating Office (PCCO) indicated the dam’s level at only 18 meters above the critical level of 180 meters.
Sangangbayan said cloud seeding operations will resume anytime after Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado appealed for this.
Angat dam is a multipurpose dam that provides domestic water at the rate of 4,000 million liters per day (MLD) to about six million consumers in Metro Manila, as well as irrigation water to 31,485 hectares of farmlands of some 28,000 farmers in Bulacan and Pampanga.
It covers a total area of 31, 485 hectares in Norzagaray, Bulacan.
The dam’s hydroelectric plant can produce 218 megawatts of power.
There have been moves to privatize the operation of the hydro electric power plant of the Angat dam, but several cause-oriented groups filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking to stop the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Pslam) from pushing through with this.
Oscar Sangangbayan, agriculturist from the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM), said the cloud seeding operations started last Jan. 20 and continued up to last March 3, but they failed to condense clouds that could produce rains.
“Angat dam’s level still continued to ebb,” he said. Latest report from the Provincial Council Coordinating Office (PCCO) indicated the dam’s level at only 18 meters above the critical level of 180 meters.
Sangangbayan said cloud seeding operations will resume anytime after Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado appealed for this.
Angat dam is a multipurpose dam that provides domestic water at the rate of 4,000 million liters per day (MLD) to about six million consumers in Metro Manila, as well as irrigation water to 31,485 hectares of farmlands of some 28,000 farmers in Bulacan and Pampanga.
It covers a total area of 31, 485 hectares in Norzagaray, Bulacan.
The dam’s hydroelectric plant can produce 218 megawatts of power.
There have been moves to privatize the operation of the hydro electric power plant of the Angat dam, but several cause-oriented groups filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking to stop the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Pslam) from pushing through with this.
