MANILA, Philippines — The newly-opened Wawa Dam was filled after just three days of rainfall from Super Typhoon Carina (internal name: Gaemi) and the southwest monsoon.
The dam, created to have a steady supply of water for Metro Manila and surrounding regions, was supposed to take six months to fill up.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had just led the dam’s opening impounding ceremony in early July in the town of Rodriguez, Rizal. Weeks later, the president would return to Rizal after Carina left a trail of destruction.
“Sometime this month we were together with the inauguration of Wawa Dam and they were saying that we saw it was empty and it would take six months for them to fill it up. As of now po, with the two days rain, it’s almost filled up,” Rizal Gov. Nina Ynares told Marcos during a situation briefing on the province.
Ynares showed Marcos photos of Wawa, who was visibly surprised.
“Ganun ‘yung tubig na bumagsak,” Marcos said. (In three days. That is how much water fell.)
The Rizal governor also showed Marcos a video of rapid water going downstream in San Mateo.
Department of Public Works and Highways Secretary Manuel Bonoan said that the floodwaters came from Sierra Madre. There were originally plans to build a Marikina Dam but the agency scrapped this as the Wawa Dam already had similar functions to the area.
“Our plan is to build a series of small dams below Wawa Dam so that these floodwaters will be impounded,” Bonoan told Marcos in mix English and Filipino.
Marcos has been traveling around areas that were hit by “Carina” and the southwest monsoon, speaking to local executives for updates. Prior to Rizal, he went to Quezon.
During the situation briefing in Quezon, local leaders told Marcos that they were experiencing floods in areas that were not there before.
Quezon Gov. Angelina Tan told Marcos that the drainage systems were a contributor to the floods. They did not notice that the drainage was clogged due to the prolonged dry season exacerbated by the El Niño phenomenon.
‘But that’s preparing for the last flood. Let’s not do that. Let’s prepare for the next flood. This is the first typhoon sa La Niña. Mahaba pa ‘to. (It’s still a long) So, we have to prepare for that. Let’s think about preparing for that,” Marcos said.
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