When Quinta forced NIA to open Moroboro 3

(Luckily, I stumbled upon an old file in my archive: aftermath of typhoon Quinta which NIA spiked by opening the gates of Moroboro dam submerging 22 towns in Iloilo)

Relief continues 03 Jan 13: Diin na pantat ta?


Photo by No to Jalaur Dam
Physical fatigue is visible on relief workers, mostly, workers at the Iloilo Provincial Engineer's Office, whose trucks are being used to deliver relief goods to families in 23 local government units displaced by typhoon Quinta.

The pictures below were taken January 3, 2013, eight days after Quinta drenched Iloilo with heavy rains afternoon ofDecember 25 through the whole day of December 26.

The rains subsided morning of December 27 and the sky cleared somewhat the afternoon but floods kept on rising after the National Irrigation Authority (NIA) released water from its dam at Moroboro, Dingle town.

Five drowned and another missing from the floods of Quinta. 30,000 hectares of farms went under water destroying crops.

Query: If a small dam of Moroboro could bring much devastation we cannot imagine how it would be when the proposed mega-dam in Calinog, Iloilo released its excess water.

The government is building a P12-billion megadam in Calinog and is rushing it up even without proper geological engineering and geo-hazard study of the project which is 20 times the size of Moroboro Dam.

Moreover, the site where the megadam is to be built is above the Western Panay Fault, a fact confirmed by Jerry Bionat, executive director of the Iloilo Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.
While bureaucrats jump in glee like monkeys ogling at the mega-dam project, environmentalists persist in warning of disasters more cataclysmic than that wrought by Moroboro should the mega-dam give way to the W. Panay Fault.
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