ROSALES, Pangasinan – The National Irrigation Administration Ilocos regional office (NIA-1) has resumed the construction of the Agno River Irrigation System Extension Project (ARISEP) in Eastern Pangasinan.
In an interview Tuesday, NIA regional manager, engineer Angelito Miguel said various projects are ongoing focusing on the expansion of the San Roque re-regulating pond in San Manuel town.
The expansion project’s first phase costing PHP285 million covers about 85 hectares. The pond has a capacity to hold five million cubic meters of water coming from the dam, he said.
“Once the pond expansion is completed, we will no longer have to worry about the spillover when the pond goes full,” he added.
The expansion of the pond began last September 2019, and was originally set to be completed this July.
However, the project was temporarily halted due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.
“It is currently on 75-percent completion and would be finished around September or October this year,” Miguel said.
The bidding for the second phase of the pond expansion project is set this August, which would cost around PHP300 million, he added.
As of this posting, the ARISEP provides service to 10,557 farmers covering 12,894 hectares of farmland in eastern Pangasinan.
Meanwhile, NIA is nearing the completion of other irrigation projects in eastern Pangasinan.
Miguel said some water canals in the towns of San Quintin, Natividad, and Umingan are set to be finished within the year.
“The project highlight would be the check-gate in Barangay Bakit-bakit in Rosales town. Once completed, the check-gate would then connect to the Lower Agno River Irrigation System Improvement Project or LARISIP, which would then flow to Alcala town, even extending to Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija,” he said.
The Bakit-bakit check-gate would also divert water to the Banilla River, which would then connect to Moncada, Tarlac.
The NIA provides free irrigation service to farmlands with an area of eight hectares below, Miguel added. (PNA)
