The San Angel Dam in Rosales and Cabatuan Dam in Bugallon
THE STORY OF TWO DAMS
A NEW dam called San Angel Small Reservoir Irrigation Project located in the eastern town of Rosales will be operational by November, providing irrigation to rice lands and a soon a fish farming facility.
On the other hand, the Cabatuan Dam in Bugallon, a town in the western side of the province, is in dire need of repair after it was heavily damaged by the most recent typhoon this year affecting farmlands around the area.
The San Angel dam, built by the National Irrigation Administration, will provide irrigation to 161 hectares of rice land mostly located in barangays San Angel, Calanutan and San Antonio.
More than 115 farmers are expected to benefit from this reservoir with an incremental gross production value of palay estimated at 692 tons per year.
The impounded water could be used for fish culture within at least 5.40 hectares in two production seasons.
NIA information officer Adoracion Soriano said the major features of the project are the main dam, which is a modified homogenous earth dam, and its appurtenant structures such as the spillway and outlet works and the irrigation and drainage facilities for the service area.
The San Angel SRIP construction started in March 2010 and has a total project cost of P79.1 million.
CABATUAN DAM
Meanwhile, the Cabatuan Dam, one of the four dams providing irrigation to 200 hectares of farmlands, was heavily damaged by typhoon Falcon and ensuing flashfloods.
Engr. Sergio Martinez, chief of NIA’s San Fabian-Dumoloc River Irrigation System, said the dam needs to be repaired immediately to enable affected farmers in the area to harvest on schedule.
“Kapag hindi agad nabigyan ng pondo, hindi makapag-ani ang mga magsasaka,” he said.
Meanwhile, a temporary restoration procedure has been adopted for the construction of a provisional dam (by connecting lateral AB canal from Dumoloc to Cabatuan canal) by the Provincial Irrigation Management Office but Martinez said this will only be useful for the short term.
NIA has held talks with chief executives of the local government units of San Fabian, San Jacinto and Bugallon for possible additional funding for the restoration and repair of the dam.
ARIIP
In another development, Frida Nidoy, chief of the Agno-Sinocalan River Irrigation System, said the construction of the Agno River Integrated Irrigation Project (ARIIP) has more than doubled NIA’s service area.
Before the construction of ARIIP, only 5,000 hectares out of the 12, 037 service areas of NIA were irrigated.
The serviced area reached 10,966 hectares in 2010 with ARIIP.
“Makikita talaga yung impact ng ARIIP kasi nadoble ang irrigated areas namin,” Nidoy said.
Another component of ARIIP, the re-regulating pond, is still pending and is aimed for completion by July 2012.
Once the ARIIP system is fully implemented, the service area could be expanded to 26,850 hectares.
“Aside from that, the 85-hectare re-regulating pond will catch water kaya may mapagkukunan kami ng tubig kahit dry season,” Nidoy added.
The Agno River system covers the towns of Mapandan, Sta. Barbara, Malasiqui, Manaoag, Laoac, Villasis, Binalonan, Asingan and San Manuel, while the Sinocalan River system covers some parts of the towns of Sta. Barbara, Calasiao, Mangaldan, Mapandan and Dagupan City. (PIA-Pangasinan/V. H. Sarmiento)
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