URDANETA CITY–Barring destructive typhoons, 2009 is expected to be a better year for farmers in Pangasinan with improved irrigation systems supporting them.

National Irrigation Administration Regional Director John Celeste said at least 70 percent of the silted irrigation canals along the Agno River have been rehabilitated.

The rehabilitation was done through Agno River Integrated Irrigation Project (ARIIP), a special project of the NIA headed by Engr. Reynaldo Mencias, financed partly by the P400 million released by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo through Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap to boost rice production.

ARIIP is one of the projects to boost the North Luzon Agri-business Quadrangle (NLAQ) which Yap heads.

Celeste said the rehabilitated irrigation canals need to be sustained through the construction of a giant re-regulating pond down below the San Roque Multi-Purpose Project (SRMP) located upstream of the Agno River.

The government is now negotiating a more than P10 billion loan from China to fund the re-regulating pond that will impound all the water discharged by SRMP during its eight-hour a day operation.

“If there is no re-regulating pond, the water being discharged by SRMP downstream of the Agno River while generating electricity will just go to waste,” Celeste explained.

Meanwhile NIA, using whatever is available from the fund released by the President, is proceeding with the construction of the proposed re-regulating pond’s head gate (intake).

This gate leads to several national irrigation systems covering several towns in eastern and central Pangasinan.

Meanwhile, Celeste also announced that a bidding for the rehabilitation of a damaged irrigation dam in San Fabian, budgeted at more than P100 million, was already completed.—LM

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