CABANATUAN CITY — The introduction of new techniques and intervention on irrigation system enabled the National Irrigation Administration-Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation System (NIA-UPRIIS) which operates the mammoth Pantabangan Dam to supply water to rice fields beyond its programmed areas amid the El Nino phenomenon this main cropping season.
Engr. Gertrudes Viado, acting UPRIIS department manager, said only 7,000 hectares of 50,550 hectares which they identified as “vulnerable (affected) area” were not served thanks to water saving technologies and strategies such as alternate wetting and drying (AWD) technology and rotational scheme.
“Out of that 7,000 na lang ang hindi pa namin napapatubigan which is ‘yun na ‘yung fix kasi tapos na yung irrigation namin,” she said, noting that harvesting has started.
AWD is a water management scheme where the rice field is supplied much less water through controlled or intermittent irrigation.
UPRIIS had projected a water elevation of 202.32 meters in the Pantabangan Dam before Dec. 1 last year thus the management programmed 97,000 hectares for dry crop service. Records, however, showed that the scarcity of rains caused a water elevation of only 201.12 meters which can irrigate only 93,000 hectares.
To irrigate its entire service area in Nueva Ecija and portions of Pampanga, Tarlac, and Bulacan that totals 147,664.07 hectares, the dam’s water elevation level should be 212.215 meters.
