Cong Dadong Dam finally releases water

ARAYAT, Pampanga — After 27 long and agonizing years, the P3.4-billion foreign-funded Cong Dadong Dam, named after President Arroyo’s late father, former President Diosdado Macapagal, finally released its first volume of water to thousands of hectares of farmlands in this town and other parts of Pampanga and Nueva Ecija.

Jesus Emmanuel Paras, administrator of the National Irrigation Administration, led the switching of the valve of the dam’s intake gate in Barangay Lacquios here recently.

The ceremony was witnessed by NIA deputy administrator Marcelino V. Tugaoen Jr., NIA assistant administrator for project development and implementation Antonio Galvez, PDDP-IC project manager, Engr. Reynaldo Mencias and other NIA officials.

Paras said the dam brought more honor to Cong Dadong who signed the law creating the NIA in 1963. The late President’s nickname was set on a huge wall toward the spillway gate.

The dam, which forms part of the Pampanga Delta Development Project-Irrigation Component (PDDP-IC) released water to canals leading to farmlands in the towns of Sta. Ana, Mexico, San Luis, Candaba, San Simon, Apalit and this town.

Engr. Reynaldo Mencias, PDDP-IC project manager, told The STAR that half of the project’s 7,000 farmers beneficiaries will avail of the new irrigation service during the dry season that extends up to April, including those in the southern Nueva Ecija town of Cabiao and San Antonio which had earlier opposed the project.

Aside from a diversion dam, other facilities for the project are settling basin, 31.8 kilometer long main canals and 97 kilometers of lateral canals and three pumping stations.

Mencias said that the whole project, programmed to irrigate year-round by way of gravity 10,270 hectares of farmlands in the seven Pampanga towns utilizing water from the Pampanga River, is now 94 percent complete and could be finished by January 2003.

The PDDP-IC was funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) under the 17th Yen Loan Package at a cost of P3.4 million of which P870.7 million served as the counterpart of the Philippine government.

The project was conceived in 1975 when a comprehensive study was carried out for the Pampanga Delta and Candaba swamps under the technical cooperation of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

In 1980, a feasibility study on the PDDP involving irrigation and flood control components were formulated. In 1987, a detailed engineering study for the PDDP-IC was carried out under a loan from the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) of Japan.

The government hired the Nippon Koei Co., Ltd. of Japan as its foreign consultant and the PKII Engrs., TCGI Engrs. and the CRIC Engrs. as its local consultants.

The project implementation was delayed when Pinatubo erupted in 1991 but its construction took off in May 1996.

Mencias said that the total project cost could reach up to P4.5 million based on the modified project scope and cost. He said that additional works will be done in San Mateo where the irrigable area will be increased by another 1,500 hectares.

The additional P1 billion, he said, is still subject for approval of the Investment Coordinating Committee Technical Board (ICCTB) of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA).

Some P508 million had been allocated for the PDDP’s operations and obligations next year of which P315 million will be used to pay for right-of-way claims and crop damages.