TALAVERA, Nueva Ecija – The National Irrigation Administration- Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation System (NIA-UPRIIS) which operates the mammoth Pantabangan Dam, is undertaking dike by-passes to ensure that water from the huge reservoir will reach tail-end service areas, particularly southern Nueva Ecija towns and portions of Bulacan province, Agriculture Sec. Proceso Alcala said on Wednesday.
The agency started the constriction of by-pass canals after thousands of farmers decried losses when irrigation supply failed to reach their rice fields amid abundance of water in the dam this season. “The by-pass will make sure that water will adequately flow next season,” said Alcala at the sidelights of the harvest festival and opening of the rehabilitated 60-year-old buttress type Murcon Dam here.
The by-pass will start operating on April 15, he said. NIA-UPRIIS Manager Engr. Josie Salazar explained that Bulacan areas, like the town of Cabiao and Gapan City of Nueva Ecija, serviced by the Division 4 primarily source irrigation supply from the Peñaranda River System which normally provides 31 cubic meters per second but abnormally generated only three cubic meters per second this dry crop season.
This forced the agency to get water from Pantabangan Dam, which in turn had to pass through Rizal-Bongabon Irrigation System, all the way to Cabanatuan City, Santa Rosa and San Leonardo towns, where rice fields are in soaking
stage. “We did our best and we found these by-pass canals a long-term solution to the problem,” Salazar said.
