Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Damaged irrigation dike impedes water flow to 500 hectares of rice lands


by Ramon Efren R. Lazaro

BOCAUE, Bulacan –At least 300 hectares of rice lands in this town were deprived of irrigation supply this dry season and some 200 hectares more received minimal water due to clogged and damaged irrigation dike of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA).

Farmers here noted that the rice self-sufficiency program of the Aquino administration that is being bragged by agriculture officials to be attainable by next year is a very big failure in their locality and that future scenarios for dry season cropping for the 500 hectares of the farmlands in their town are bleak unless drastic rehabilitation measures are immediately implemented.

These were the conclusions on the recent joint ocular inspection made by NIA personnel, farmers leaders from Bocaue and Pandi together with its municipal agriculture officers on why farm lands in Bocaue have been receiving only a minimal amount of irrigation water for more than 10 years.

Precioso Donato Punzala, assistant operations engineer of the National Irrigation Administration Region 3 Bulacan – Aurora – Nueva Ecija Irrigation Management Office (NIA-BANE IMO) said that the damaged dikes are located in the Lateral D of the south zone of the Angat-Maasim Rivers Irrigation System.

Punzalan said one of the reasons why the flow of water at the said irrigation system is being impeded is due to the dumping of garbage on it and made worst by growth of weeds, kang kong and quiapo plants on the waterway.

He added that a back hoe from NIA-BANE IMO is provided to Linaw na Bukal Irrigators Association, that was awarded a contract by NIA for the maintenance of the irrigation canal, to remove the debris clogging the said irrigation but some problems cropped up and the issues were forwarded to the legal services department in the central office of NIA.

It was also found out that there was something wrong in the cementing of the irrigation canal bottom that was only one and one-half foot deep instead of two and one-half foot deep that causes the impediment of the irrigation water flow downstream going to Bocaue that was done during a road widening that was made a few years back in Barangay Bunsuran in Pandi town, specifically on Lateral D Station 7+100 of the irrigation system        

Punzalan said that the group agreed to make a letter to the Department of Public Works and Highway for it to review the design of the bridge over the irrigation canal and make appropriate rehabilitation of it so as not to impede the flow of irrigation water under it together with the bridge located in Station 6+100 in Barangay Bagbaguin also in Pandi that has the same problem.

Seepages of water in the irrigation canal dikes that flows to drainages and creeks were also noted in Station 2+150 in Bagbaguin, Pandi; Station 2+900 in Manatal, Pandi; Station 3+250 and Station 4+250 in Masagana, Pandi.

Punzalan estimates that the volume of irrigation water that’s been loss through these seepages is enough to irrigate the 500 hectares of farm land in their service area in Bocaue.

Punzalan said the seepages are widely believed to have been cause by the burying of janitor fishes in the dike’s embankment and added that it needs concrete linings of approximately 200-300 meters fronting the creek.

Besides the problem on rehabilitating the dikes, Punzalan said that the constructions of houses by informal settlers along the dikes and on top of the irrigation canal in the towns of Pandi and Bocaue pose a very serious problem on the flow of irrigation water.

To address these problems, Punzalan said that it is imperative that local government units—provincial, municipal and barangay levels-- NIA, irrigators associations, concerned government agencies, farmers’ groups NGOs and media join forces together to find appropriate solutions to the problems.

Manolito Diaz, municipal agriculture and fishery council chairman of Bocaue said the problems on the diminishing irrigation water supply to Bocaue were constantly being reiterated in their meeting with their municipal agriculture personnel for more than 20 years now.

From two cropping seasons, Bocaue farmers particularly in barangays Caingin, Wakas, Bagumbayan, Sulucan and Bambang are now only capable of planting during the wet season, Diaz lamented and explained that the situation brings economic hardship to farmers’ families.

He also noted that large tracts of irrigated farm lands were already converted for other purposes in these villages and added that it is about time that local agriculture personnel  provide farmers with alternative livelihood projects, like teaching them on how to raise vegetables or livestock.