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.
