P351.3-M irrigation project in Nueva Ecija now half-complete

PALAYAN CITY – The P351.3-million Aulo Irrigation Project (AIP) is now half-complete.

Engineer Fedencio Casiño, AIP project engineer and head of Task Force Aulo, said the construction of the 27-meter high, 435-meter long earth dam has accomplished a 50.5-percent completion rate as of presstime. Once completed, the dam will irrigate 810 hectares of agricultural lands in this city benefiting 495 farmers.

Casiño said the dam project, which will source water from the Aulo River located four kilometers from the city proper, will be completed in January 2005 from the original completion date of April 2004. Undertaking the construction works is the R.N. Guico Construction and Development (RNGCD).

The AIP has a reservoir area of 86.4 hectares, a maximum water surface elevation of 104.77 meters, a normal water surface elevation of 102 meters and a minimum water surface elevation of 83.16 meters.

The AIP was initiated in the middle ’90s by former Rep. Pacifico Fajardo who financed its feasibility study.

Casiño said the project will also feature additional irrigation canals and flood control facilities and will serve as an eco-tourism site with resort and other recreational facilities.

He said NIA is set to submerge 86 hectares of lands in Mt. Mapaet and have already resettled some 400 families with the assistance of third district Rep. Aurelio Umali and Mayor Relly Fajardo.

Manuel Llorin, principal engineer of the AIP’s project management office (PMO), told The STAR that construction of the dam was slowed down by several factors over the past months, among them the occurrence of typhoons and even threats of terrorism which prompted the Department of National Defense (DND) to be strict in the issuance of blasting permits.

Blasting permits are needed in order to blast the rocks along the mountains to give way to the construction of the dam’s spillway.

The construction activities are being undertaken under the supervision and control of the NIA’s Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation Systems (UPRIIS) led by project manager Antonio Nangel.

Earlier, Umali requested NIA Administrator Jesus Emmanuel Paras to transfer supervision of the AIP from the San Rafael, Bulacan-based NIA Region 3 office to NIA-UPRIIS to ensure better project coordination since UPRIIS, the system that operates the Pantabangan Dam is near to the AIP.