NIA to complete Magat retrofitting in one year

MANILA, Philippines — State-run National Irrigation Administration (NIA) hopes  to complete the P500 million retrofitting of the  four-decade old Magat Dam in Isabela within one year.

In a briefing yesterday, NIA acting administrator Eddie Guillen said the agency commenced the retrofitting of the Magat Dam’s spillway and bridge at the dam site.

He said the initial cost estimate assessed by NIA engineers amounted to P500 million.

“We estimate it will take one year to implement the retrofitting,” Guillen said.

The NIA official underscored the importance of the retrofit project given the age of the Magat Dam to ensure unhampered delivery of irrigation services and hydroelectric power in the decades to come.

The dam, which is one of the largest dams in the country, was constructed in 1975 and was completed in 1982.

It is a multi-purpose dam used primarily for irrigating agricultural land and also serves as a tool for flood control, and for power generation through the Magat Hydroelectric Power Plant.

“The Magat Dam is over 40 years old. It’s really quite old, it needs to be retrofitted,” Guillen said.

“The retrofitting will allow the dam to operate for more than 100 years and that would be a big help,” he said.

The Magat Dam provides irrigation water to 90,597.8 hectares of farmlands benefitting 62,890 farmers in Isabela, Quirino, and Ifugao.

Meanwhile, its hydropower turbines also generate 388 megawatts (MW) of electricity.

In 2021, the NIA-Magat River Integrated Irrigation System (MARIIS) assured emergency measures are in place for weather phenomena or disturbances, natural disasters, and even manmade disasters that may result to dam breakage.

The MARIIS Dam and Reservoir Division has also been strengthening the construction of sediment catchment structures upstream of Magat Reservoir to inject short term solutions for the sedimentation deposition in the reservoir.

It has 27 sediment catchment structure already in place for sediments not to go down in the reservoir.

Reforestation in the Magat Watershed is also being done since 2014.

These are among the alternative interventions for mitigation prior to a conduct of a feasibility study of the proposed dredging activities at the Magat Dam Reservoir to ensure the structural stability of the Magat Dam and increase the reservoir capacity for irrigation, power generation and flood control.