Displaced Benguet families face new flood peril from aging dams

BAGUIO CITY — Indigenous families displaced decades ago by the construction of the Ambuklao and Binga dams now confront a mounting flood hazard as siltation steadily reduces the river's capacity to manage seasonal waters safely.

The Upper Agno River communities are urging intervention from national authorities as prolonged monsoon rains in mid-August caused the river to swell, resulting in damage to sections of flood-control structures protecting downstream settlements. The accumulation of sediment over the dam reservoirs' operational lifetime has progressively diminished their flood-mitigation capacity, leaving residents vulnerable to overflow events.

The situation underscores a longstanding tension between the infrastructure needs that prompted the original dam projects and the ongoing displacement and safety concerns affecting indigenous populations whose ancestral territories were submerged for development purposes. Environmental degradation of the river system compounds these vulnerabilities, with siltation now emerging as a critical factor in flood risk management.

Local officials and community representatives have intensified calls for comprehensive government response, including updated flood-risk assessments and potential infrastructure upgrades to address the changed hydrological conditions created by decades of sediment buildup. The August flooding incident has renewed focus on the need for coordinated intervention to protect communities that already bore significant costs from the original dam developments.