Casecnan irrigation project delayed

MUNOZ, Nueva Ecija - Soil is the farmer's best source of revenue. But for builders of the giant $580-million Casecnan Multipurpose Irrigation and Power Project (CMIPP), soil is their worst adversary.

Adverse soil conditions are slowing down the construction of the dam's 26-kilometer underground tunnel, further delaying its completion from July 27 this year to the first quarter of next year, according to a report of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA)-Casecnan.

The report said that the tunnel boring machine at the 'Tailrace area' at Adit 3 in Barangay Pauan, Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija has been abandoned because of the unfavorable soil conditions.

Engineer Alexander Coloma, NIA-Casecnan project manager, said that laboratory testings made by the material testing and quality control division of NIA-Casecnan showed that the soil in Pauan has been found to be soft, making it extremely difficult for the machine to bore holes.

'Because of soft soil, tunnel-boring and drilling operations in the area have been rendered impossible,' he said. He said that tunneling operations are only being done in Adit 1 towards the Casecnan intake area and in Abuyo, Pantabangan.

The dam project involves the construction of a tunnel that will cut underneath 26 kilometers of mountains from Nueva Vizcaya to Nueva Ecija. The tunnel will divert some 800 million cubic meters of water, which will be added to the present volume of the Pantabangan reservoir.

The construction of the tunnel falls under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) component which is supervised by the CE Casecnan Water and Energy Company, Inc. (CECWECI).

The other component is the irrigation component which involves construction of a 64-kilometer superdiversion canal and 427 kilometers of lateral canals. This particular phase is funded at a cost of P7.5 billion under a loan agreement between NIA-Casecnan and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

Coloma said that as of January 31, 16.6 kilometers or 63.93 percent of the 26-kilometer long tunnel had been completed. Overall, the BOT component is 77 percent complete.

Workers have been employing drill and blast operations utilizing a 2,097-man work force to prevent further delays.

Coloma said NIA-Casecnan is presently acquiring the right-of-way and upgrading existing communal irrigation systems and rehabilitating watersheds.

He said that 150 hectares of forest plantations will be established by NIA-Casecnan this year, apart from the 650-hectare plantations they set up the past two years.

He said that an initial 7,000 seedlings or two percent of the plantations' requirement of 280,000 seedlings had been transplanted in the area.