ARE we lowlanders supposed to find relief in the pronouncements from the National Power Corporation and San Roque dam authorities that despite the dam water level having already reached the 280-meter mark (which we’ve been told all along is the “critical level” for spilling action) last week, they are not releasing any water as yet?

Is that “assurance” something Pangasinenses in the path of the mighty Agno river should welcome – or dread? Are we supposed to feel indebted for not being inundated by their excess waters — thank you so much , sir, much obliged?.

Now, Antonio Calaycay, flood forecasting point man of the Napocor based at the dam is saying they need all the water they impound at the giant reservoir to turn the turbines and generate some 400 megawatts of electricity to supply the Luzon grid. The bigger the volume, the better. It is, we reckon, another way of saying they might even allow filling it beyond 280 meters and just below 290 meters, the level now being bandied about as the real critical level when, perhaps, water is already just at the rim and would be spilling over even without any human or machine intervention?

Yes, in a sense, we may be overly morbid saying all these, but certainly where a dam’s huge volume of water is concerned, we need to feel disturbed, especially where those in charge, to include Confident Calaycay, seem to totally, fully, completely believe in their giant infrastructure’s holding capacity.

Just imagining all that volume of water being poured down by the upstream Ambuklao and Binga dams up in Benguet province during severe rainfall, all being captured by the far bigger San Roque dam in its bosom, gives one the impression that another week or so of torrential rains like the past two wet weeks could already build up to the scenario we dread about a filled-to-overflowing dam.

We wonder now whether those guys up there are consciously or unconsciously toying with the lives and properties of thousands of unwary people downstream of the Agno in their quest for more, and more, and more power generation capacity in their dam.