BACOLOD CITY -- Twenty irrigation sites in Negros Occidental are already 30 to 60 percent depleted, five of which had totally dried up due to the long dry spell.
Engr. Jimbo Garsula, head of the Agricultural Engineering Division of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA), said on Thursday, January 21, that based on his office's regular observation and monitoring, water levels in Provincial Government-implemented irrigation systems are constantly decreasing.
Garsula said the depletion of water in the irrigation sources has affected 1,000 farmers, covering 1,300 hectares of rice farms, in all six districts of the province.
“Our water sources are now really affected by prolonged dry weather,” Garsula said, adding that if the current conditions persist, “all farms depending on these irrigation sites will soon be at critical level.”
Of the 20 irrigation sites, two are situated and serving local government units (LGUs) in the first district; the second district has one irrigation site; two sites each for the third, fourth and fifth districts; and the remaining 11 sites are in the sixth district.
Garsula said the five sites that dried up are mostly situated in the central and southern parts of the province, including small water impounding projects in Pontevedra and Cauayan towns, covering at least 100 hectares.
Rice farmers in these areas are currently resorting to other alternative sources of water, and planting other crops that are drought-resilient, he said.
As part of the measures to counter the effects of El Niño in the province, Garsula said OPA will again call on the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) and the General Services Office (GSO) of the Provincial Government to act immediately on its request for the procurement of P4.5-million worth of irrigation pumps and engines.
Moreover, the Provincial Government is also eyeing this year the implementation of the P121-million Watershed-Irrigation Development Project, a long-term irrigation initiative that aims to develop a sustainable water source in the province.
The project is centered on the adoption of small watershed areas and the creation of a river banking system by utilizing irrigators’ associations in planting trees along rivers and other water sources to stabilize water embankment, Garsula said.
“We are targeting to adopt watersheds in the Northern Negros Natural Park, multiple use zones in central Negros, and the Ilog-Hilabangan in the south,” Garsula said. (EPN/Sun.Star Bacolod)