Pantabangan dam water adequate despite El Niño

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — Water volume at the Pantabangan dam is expected to remain adequate for some 85,000 hectares of farmlands in Central Luzon despite signs of dry El Niño weather, but farmers tilling lands irrigated by the dam have to brace for higher rates to be charged by the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) starting this May.

In an interview, Carlito Gapasin, Manager of NIA’s operations and institutional department, said that NIA is slated to charge a flat rate of P10 per kilo of rice harvested from areas irrigated by Pantabangan dam starting this May. NIA used to charge only P9 per kilo for harvests during the dry season and P10 per kilo for wet season harvests.

Gapasin said that the new rates will be imposed on all farmers who till some 85,000 hectares of land during the wet season and about 70,000 hectares during the dry season, mostly in Nueva Ecija, which is dubbed as the country’s traditional rice granary.

He estimated that the new rates could raise some P250 million annually for the NIA which is a self-liquidating agency without any allocation from the national budget. — Ding Cervantes