Much of the world shunning dams, we are in a building frenzy

MARLEN RONQUILLO

WHEN Filipinos seriously grounded on the critical issues of water generation and the environment assess the efficiency of the major Philippine dams, the consensus view can be summed up in one word — inefficiency.

Amid a powerful typhoon with massive rain dumps, like the huge amount of rainfall that Typhoon Ondoy dumped over much of Luzon in 2009, major dams turn into killer dams. The failure to manage the water spills from the dams during emergencies, as Ondoy demonstrated, often results in the massive loss of lives and massive loss of property, from government infrastructure to crops and livestock. The floods from Ondoy and the reckless water releases from the dams killed at least 665 people and destroyed $1.15 billion worth of property.

During the dry season, such as the one we have now, the dams cannot even efficiently store water. The dropping water levels at the major Luzon dams are part of the horror stories about agriculture that the media regularly reports. The inadequate water supply for irrigation, power and potable water is rooted in the overall inefficiency of the major Luzon dams, and this is the region that produces at least 70 percent of the total national output. It is safe to assume that national output would rise only if the Luzon dams were efficient. Theoretically, fully irrigated rice farms routinely harvest three times a year, a mandate the major Luzon dams, with their spotty water supply, fail to do. And dams for hydropower seriously hurt the national economy when they fail to generate the mandated power output for offices, plants, factories and households.

The optics tell the powerful story of the broken dams. The old township of Pantabangan in Nueva Ecija was sacrificed and submerged to build the Pantabangan Dam, and when you see the dam during summer — the spire of the sunken church rises from the silted dam — you have the feeling that submerging the old township for a dam that is often useless during summer was a decision of folly.

The 20th-century belief that dams are the mandatory infrastructure for power generation, irrigation and potable water no longer holds today, as the broader world, especially the US and Europe, has declared a pause from the past century’s dam-building binge. Science and engineering also present water generation options other than dam construction. The thriving fishery resources in the major rivers freed from dams, weirs and culverts are the other positive stories reported by nations that soured on dams.

With that backdrop, the announcement from the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) that the government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wants to see the completion of four major dams that cost billions of pesos each before his term ends in 2028 appears to be a global outlier. There is a global movement loosely called “Undamming the Dams” and another one called “Free the Rivers” because of the twin issues of inefficiency and costs plus the impact of dams on the health of river systems. And yet, we seem to pursue dam-building with the zeal of the dam believers of the past century, contrary to the findings of science, hydrological engineering, and environmental protection. Study after study released by European environmental groups categorically states that major dams have been, by and large, inadequate for water generation, harmful to the health of rivers, costly to build and tough to maintain. And harmful as well to the overall environment.

The four major dams with 2028 as the construction deadline are the P22-billion Ilocos Norte-Abra Irrigation Project, the P19-billion Panay River Basic Integrated Development Project, the P9-billion Ilocos Sur Trans-Basin Project, and the P8.6-billion Tumauini multipurpose dam in Isabela province, according to the NIA. The P60 billion required for the four major dam projects has to be partly financed by borrowings, another layer added to the already historic debt level — and without the certainty that the dams will be productive throughout their estimated 50-year lives. Hope and rosy expectations are one thing; reality is another.

According to NIA, the four major dam projects will be complemented by the construction of at least a dozen minor dams. Mr. Marcos reportedly also wants to fast-track the minor irrigation projects. A total of 20 major and minor dams will be constructed by the Marcos administration, NIA said.

The broader world is telling us, “When will you ever learn?” and we are not even reconsidering our love affair with the costly and inefficient dams that are now shunned by the world outside.

The United States, the most prolific builder of dams before being overtaken by China, is now undertaking the biggest dam removal in history, the current decommissioning of the four dams that have barred the free flow of water into the Klamath River that runs from California down to Oregon. The hydropower company that owned and operated the four dams ceded ownership of the dams to the government, which in turn paved the way for the decision to remove them. One of the three dams has been removed. The removal of the three others is ongoing and expected to be completed by November of this year.

Over 1,200 major and minor dams have been removed across the US as of 2023, with Pennsylvania taking the lead. But even this could not match the desire of public and private actors to free the rivers of Europe by removing hundreds of dams, weirs and culverts every year. In 2021, 239 major and minor dams had been removed in 17 member countries of the European Union. In 2022, the so-called year of peak removal, 325 major dams had been decommissioned. Spain and France are leading the EU-wide dam removal efforts.

Even China, which currently tops the world in dam-building, is reportedly pausing and reconsidering its dam-building strategy to look for more scientific, efficient and environmentally friendly ways to generate water other than the dams.

Where does that put our undying love affair with major dams? Perhaps we can put it this way: a country where the old is new again.