Bulacan Governor Daniel Fernando on Tuesday appealed on the national government to replace the defective rubber gates of Bustos Dam also known as Angat Afterbay Regulatory Dam.
Fernando with officials from the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) made an ocular inspection of the dam in the wake of the recent collapse of its Rubber Gate Bay 5.
“I will do everything in my power to safeguard the Bulakenyos from imminent harm by ensuring the safety of Bustos Dam. It is now critical to reassess our path forward to ensure that our dams and levees in the province continue to meet stringent standards of safety,” Fernando said.
The damage was allegedly due to the inferior quality of materials used by NIA’s contractor in the said dam’s rehabilitation project where in 2017, the rubber gate in Bay 3 was also replaced after a barge hit it and gave way due to the low quality materials used.
“We will never take for granted the inferior quality materials used in the rehabilitation of the dam. Even if only one of the rubber gates were damaged, the NIA would ensure the order of the six sector gates and immediately replace them with agreed materials that should be used in accordance with the contract,” the governor said.
Earlier, Fernando summoned NIA officials to an emergency meeting to assess the current situation on the rehabilitation of Bustos Dam where he said he would create a Technical Working Committee on the dam safety in order for these structures to continue to meet standards of safety to serve and protect the communities.
After the inspection and short briefing with the concerned government officials, Fernando disclosed the replacement period of all six rubber gates will start by next year since the fabrication of the replacement rubber gates will take at least six months.
Present during the ocular inspection were NIA Administrator Ricardo Visaya; NIA Deputy Administrator for Engineering and Operations Sector C’zar Sulaik; Region 3 NIA Director Josephine Salazar; Contractor Isidro Pajarillaga of ITP Construction Inc.-Guangxi Hydro Electric Construction Bureau Co. LTD. (GHCB) Consortium; Bustos Mayor Francis Albert Juan and head departments of Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, Agriculture, Engineering and Provincial Administrator’s Offices.
NIA Administrator Visaya’s recommendation was to remove and replace all the Chinese-made rubber gates used in the rehabilitation of Bustos Dam, otherwise known as the Angat Afterbay Regulator Dam.
He also said the brand to be used is not the issue, he did not clear-out if it will be the same brand Chinese made or Japan, Germany made as long that it will pass the parameter and specs that has to be followed through the testing procedures.
On the other hand, Mayor Juan confirmed the sprinklers of the six rubber gates were also defective and not even working since the Chinese-made rubber gates started on its operation.
Meanwhile, Salazar said the dam is still undergoing rehabilitation works “with some item of works to be completed, so it is not yet turnover or accepted by NIA. With regards to the installed rubber gates, it has a warranty of 20 years so any defects or damages occurred is still the responsibility of the contractor.”
“The six rubber gates of the Bustos dam will be totally replaced with new ones with additional features like sprinkles to make them heat resistant by the contractor, ” Salazar added.This issue revolved when Vice Governor Wilhelmino Sy Alvarado exposed in his recent privilege speech at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) session the bad condition of Bustos Dam, claiming that inferior quality of materials were used in the rehabilitation of Bustos Dam and warned of a catastrophe waiting to happen on downstream communities of the said dam that can cause massive damages due to flooding of 10 towns namely Bustos, Plaridel, Pandi, Bocaue, Guiguinto, Balagtas, Bulakan, Malolos, Calumpit and Hagonoy.Fernando said that Alvarado’s expose has been confirmed to be true, the materials used in the rehabilitation of Bustos Dam should be replaced with materials that were specified in the contract for its rehabilitation.
Alvarado, also the presiding officer and chairman of Committee on Health summoned NIA officials on a special joint committee hearing of the Committee of Good Government and Blue Ribbon Committee of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan on Friday to find the reasons behind the collapse of the rubber gate of the said dam.
“This is a gross and inexcusable negligence that may lead to the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives and a “delubyo” (catastrophe) might happen if this defective materials will not be replaced,” Alvarado said.
He explained that during the rainy season, the water level of the said dam is normally at 17 meters high and during a typhoon one of its six rubber gates can release 500 cubic meters per second (cms) of water that can inundate most of Hagonoy and Calumpit towns.
It was found out that all the Chinese-made rubber gates were only installed for less than two years when Rubber Gate No. 5 collapsed in the first week of May this year.
If all the six rubber gates of the dam collapse, it can release a total of 3,000 cms of water that can submerged 16 towns of the province under several feet of floodwater, Alvarado said.
On the other hand, Lauro Ballesteros, Bulacan, Aurora, Nueva Ecija (BANE)-Irrigation Management Office manager, has confirmed that Rubber Gate No. 5 of Bustos Dam has suffered a breakdown but was not totally damaged but only suffered leaks.
“As remedial measure and to make the system operational this wet cropping season we decided to install sheet file supported by sandbag at bay 5,” Ballesteros added.
“As per the recommendation of Vice Governor Alvarado, binago namin ang protocol ng dam at ibinaba ang level ng tubig upang hindi na mapwersa ang mga rubber gates,” Ballesteros said.Fernando, who was the vice governor of the province at the time of the bidding for the dam’s rehabilitation recalls that NIA and its contractor has proposed the materials to be used for the rubber gates will be those made in Japan or Germany and not from China.
The Bustos Dam rehabilitation works was bidded out in the 3rd quarter of 2016 for P1 Billion that include concreting of its main canals, Fernando said.