Pantabangan Dam stops irrigation to CL farmlands

CABANATUAN CITY, Philippines – Water supply from Pantabangan Dam to some 100,000 hectares of agricultural lands in Central Luzon was cut off after a church submerged in 1971 when the dam was constructed started to surface.

Engineer Josephine Salazar, National Irrigation Administration-Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation System (NIA-UPRIIS) operations manager, said the surfacing of the church in old Pantabangan town is a normal occurrence at an elevation of 181 meters.

The dam’s water level remains high even amid the scorching heat, she added.

Salazar said water supply was cut since the dry cropping season has ended and that they will resume supplying irrigation by June 1 at the onset of the wet cropping season.

As of noon yesterday, the dam’s water level was at 182.06 meters, higher by 0.8 meters two weeks ago.

The water level is still way above the critical level of 171.5 meters and the critical level for power of 177 meters.

Last April 29, the dam’s water elevation was at 181.44 meters, lower compared to the 187.05 meters recorded over the same period last year.

Yesterday’s water level was still way below the spilling level of 221.

Salazar attributed the dip in the dam’s water level to climate change, high temperature, and additional area programmed for irrigation.

For this year, the NIA has programmed 114,026 hectares for irrigation, up by 2,772 hectares from last year’s 111,254 hectares, she added.

The UPRIIS is the country’s largest national irrigation system under the administrative supervision of NIA.

It operates the World Bank-funded Pantabangan Dam, which irrigates farmlands in Nueva Ecija, San Miguel and San Ildefonso towns in Bulacan, and Arayat town in Pampanga.