BUSTOS, Bulacan — The rains in the past few days triggered by monsoon, and the recent typhoons have been irrigating rice farms in Bulacan and Pampanga in spite of the inability of Angat Dam to provide water supply because of the anticipated El Niño this year.
Melencio Domingo, president of farmers group in the City of Malolos, said two straight days of rains in a week allowed them to stock up on water in preparation for this year’s wet cropping season.
“Here in the fields, it had rained twice in a week so we were able to contain runoff water in muddy ponds,” Domingo told the Inquirer.
“Just like today, (Tuesday, July 21), we had a heavy downpour. Rain poured for 45 minutes. This will supply our irrigation needs when we plant between Aug. 8 to 25,” Domingo said.
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“We are blessed with enough waters as we celebrate the Aug. 10 Feast of San Lorenzo Diakono,” the rice farmer leader said.
Enrique Carlos, who heads the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) Irrigation Management Office (IMO) in Bulacan, said at least 3,000 hectares of rice farms in Pampanga and Bulacan are now heavily dependent on rain water while the Angat dam reservoir remains depleted.
Around 22,000 farmers in 17 Bulacan towns and the towns of Apalit, Candaba, San Simon and San Luis in Pampanga need irrigation for more than 27,000 hectares of rice farms from the Angat Maasim River Irrigation System (AMRIS). Some of them took the risk of planting in July which is traditionally the start of the wet cropping season.
Angat dam releases water to Bustos Dam forom where NIA distributed irrigation water.
But on Wednesday (July 22), Angat’s reservoir level was 151.92 meters above sea level (masl) which is already more than 8 meters below its low critical elevation of 160 masl.
The reservoir level on Tuesday (July 21) was 152.19 meters.
The Angat reservoir needs to be at an elevation of 212 masl which is within its normal high elevation.
Angat dam’s priority has been to supply Metro Manila’s domestic water requirements, to generate hydro electricity, and provide Bulacan’s water needs.
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Butos dam is currently at the low elevation of 15.53 meters. INQ /mr
