The NIA is set to bid the rehabilitation project by midyear so that work on the project could start by yearend, said NIA administrator Florencio Padernal.
The P1 billion is from the debt paid by the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System for its use of water from the dam since the 1990’s, he said. Padernal bared plans to replace with stronger rubber materials the six rubber gates of the dam used to irrigate farmlands, especially in Plaridel town in Bulacan.
The ‘’apron’’ or surroundings of the dam, training walls, primary canals and other parts of the dam would also be rehabilitated, he said.
The Bustos Rubber Dam was constructed in 1963 during the Diosdado Macapagal administration under Republic Act 3601, as a primary infrastructure to provide irrigation to lands newly placed under government agrarian reform.
The Bustos Rubber Dam holds as much as 17 million cubic meters of water from the Angat Dam. During the rainy season, it serves to regulate the flow of waters towards the Angat River to curb flooding of populated areas in Bulacan.
