NIA to bid out Bustos Dam rehab

MANILA, Philippines - The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) is bidding out by the third quarter the P1-billion contract for the rehabilitation of the Bustos rubber dam in Bulacan. 

The Bustos Dam is a small irrigation dam located in the municipality of Bustos that has a holding capacity of 17 million cubic meters. It is also a regulator dam of the larger Angat Dam.

NIA administrator Claro Maranan said the project specifications and the terms of reference for the bidding would be finalized by July in preparation for the contract bidding by the third quarter.

The project is scheduled to be implemented by November.

The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) would divert funds totaling P1 billion to NIA for the implementation of the project as payment for the use of a portion of the irrigation agency’s water allocation during the 1990s.

Maranan said for a couple of years in the 1990s, the MWSS borrowed from NIA’s water allocation at a volume of 15 cubic meters per second.

“The budget that would be transferred by the MWSS to NIA is in consideration of the use of NIA’s irrigation allocation granted by the National Water Resources Board,” Maranan said.

A draft agreement for the transfer of funds, he said, has been completed and would be presented for approval by the MWSS board.

MWSS administrator Gerry Esquivel said it would be more economical and faster to repair the dam’s rubber body instead of converting it into a concrete structure.  

The P1-billion budget, he said, would also cover the rehabilitation of the dam’s auxiliary structures.

“It is a fairly simple design and it will not take a long time for the prospective bidders to evaluate it,” Esquivel said.

The Bustos Dam currently provides irrigation for some 1,000 hectares of rice production areas in Bulacan and Pampanga that are still in the reproductive stage after irrigation supply from the Angat Dam was cut due to falling water level.

Repairs in the Bustos Dam were last done some 13 years ago. Since then, several of its check gates have been damaged by typhoons and the rubber coating of the dam body has become brittle.