Chinese firm to build re-regulating pond
STA.MARIA–The irrigation component of the San Roque Multi-Purpose Project (SRMP) in Pangasinan will finally be built soon following the awarding of the contract to winning bidder China Machineries and Agricultural Company (CMAC).
National Irrigation Administrator Carlos Salazar said construction of the re-regulating pond is scheduled to start in August.
Speaking to newsmen here on Friday, DPWH Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr., the Cabinet Officer for Regional Development (CORD) of Region 1, said the contract for the project prepared by the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) board is ready for signing by officials of the Chinese-owned company.
The project will be funded by a $98 million (P4.5 billion) loan to the Philippine government by China through the China Import and Export Bank.
The re-regulating pond, 300 meters long with a height of 12 meters and is capable of storing 4.4 million cubic meters of water, will impound all the water being discharged by the SRMP from its turbines as it generates electricity for the Luzon Grid.
Esperon, who was in town to preside over an Irrigators-Farmers Forum at the Pangasinan State University, emphasized that the re-regulating pond is just part of the irrigation component of the SRMP, which still needs a series of lateral canals to convey the water to existing irrigation systems.
Reynaldo Mencias, officer in charge of NIA’s special projects, said there is also a need to rehabilitate existing irrigation systems downstream.
Esperon said the government has yet to find a funding source for the P6 billion needed to build the other needed irrigation facilities.
Targeted recipients of water from the re-regulating pond are the Agno River Integrated Irrigation Project (ARIIP) and the Ambayoan-Dipalo River Irrigation System (ADRIS), both national irrigation systems located in the sixth and fifth districts of Pangasinan.
Mencias said the ARIIP, once fully operational, will irrigate 26,000 hectares of land while ADRIS will provide irrigation water year-round for another 7,600 hectares.
The feasibility study estimates that once the project is fully completed, it will be able to irrigate 70,000 hectares of land in Pangasinan, northern Tarlac and parts of Nueva Ecija.—LM
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