Re-regulatory pond breaks ground
SRMP’S IRRIGATION COMPONENT IN 2013
SAN MANUEL–After the flood in October that completely swamped many farms in the province, local farmers can begin to look more positively at the San Roque Multi-Purpose Dam Project with the expected completion of the construction of the re-regulating pond component for irrigation in four years.
The groundbreaking for the construction was finally done last Thursday.
The project, initially costing P4.5 billion to be financed by a loan secured by the government from China’s Import and Export Bank, is a giant re-regulating pond just below the dam, capable of impounding five million cubic meters of water at one time.
The structure will catch all the water being discharged by the high dam while in the process of generating power of about 411 megawatts, instead of just flowing downstream of the Agno River before emptying into the Lingayen Gulf.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, who along with Presidential Management Staff Secretary Hermogenes Esperon presided over the groundbreaking rites, said the project will be a big boon to farmers in Pangasinan as it can irrigate an additional 35,000 hectares of land.
Scheduled to be completed in four years, the project requires an additional P7.5 billion with the provision of different lateral canals leading to the existing Agno River Irrigation System (ARIS) and the Ambayoan-Dipalo River Irrigation System (ADRIS), which serve 18 municipalities and one city in Pangasinan.
The re-regulating pond would be practically useless without these canals.
IRRIGATION OF FARMLANDS
Yap said at least 26,850 hectares of land in Mapandan, Malasiqui, Sta. Barbara, Calasiao, Mangaldan, Manaoag, Laoac, Binalonan, Urdaneta, Villasis, Asingan and San Manuel, all under ARIS, and another 7,600 hectares of land in Natividad, San Nicolas, San Quintin, Sta. Maria, Tayug and Balungao under ADRIS will be served with year-round irrigation.
With sufficient irrigation water and planted with hybrid seeds, these lands can easily produce from 180 to 200 bags of rice per hectare, a big leap from the normal farmers’ harvest of 80 bags per hectare.
Esperon said with the SRMDP’s irrigation component in place soon, there would be more people in the central plain of Pangasinan who would have jobs and livelihood.
CANALS
Esperon, who is leaving his government post soon to run for a seat in Congress in the sixth district of Pangasinan, said the re-regulating pond is part of the Agno River Integrated Irrigation Project estimated to cost more than P11 billion, consisting of a P4.5 billion foreign loan component andP7.3 billion local counterpart.
The counterpart fund from the government, he said, must be incorporated in the annual budget of the government for the next four years.
National Irrigation Administration chief Carlos Salazar said the ARIS and ADRIS can only irrigate a combined 12,000 hectares of land, mostly during the wet season and little during the dry season.
The re-regulating pond, to be constructed by China Agricultural Machineries Corporation, will have an impounding area of 85 kilometers. The length of its ogee weir is 300 meters with a height of 10.50 meters.
Also present during the groundbreaking rites were the representative of Chinese Ambassador Lui Jianchiao; Ryukichi Yawa-guchi, president of the San Roque Power Corporation, the company which operates the SRMDP; and mayors of towns that will benefit from the project.—LM
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