Angara seeks program to save watershed areas

A short-term program to save critical watershed areas in the country should be undertaken to spare the country’s agricultural sector from the "perennial penance" of acute water shortage and crop failure, Sen. Edgardo Angara said yesterday.

Given the country’s heavy dependence on agriculture, Angara, a former agriculture secretary, said the rehabilitation of vital watershed areas in and around major irrigation dams should be a top priority of government.

Angara said watershed areas that are supposed to supply water to dams during the rainy season are mostly denuded and "logged-over."

The devastation, he said, has greatly affected the viability of giant irrigation dams.

"The irrigation dams will not serve their purpose unless the watershed areas are completely rehabilitated. The present problem with shortage of irrigation water is directly a result of heavily-logged watershed areas," Angara said.

He pointed out that the Angat, Pantabangan and Magat dams cannot even meet the water requirements of the areas they are servicing during long, dry spells as the watershed areas that are supposed to support them have fallen prey to logging.

Watershed areas are "off-limits" to logging and must be protected, Angara stressed, adding its protection must be viewed as a critical component to the country’s food productivity programs, not just another project for the environment.

Tens of thousands of farmers in Luzon, according to the senator, have failed to plant rice on time due to the limited irrigation water and shrinking water level in major dams.

In major rice producing areas in Central Luzon, planting had been delayed for a month or two because irrigation water supply is insufficient.

Angara noted the country has been importing one million metric tons of rice over the past several years, and the trend will not be reversed unless an efficient irrigation system is put in place.

Angara is also seeking the review of the country’s irrigation policies, saying small water impounding systems spread across the country are better than giant dams mostly paid for by foreign loans.

New irrigation technologies should likewise be developed through research and development work, he said.