Garbage clogs irrigation canals in Central Luzon farms — NIA

CABANATUAN CITY — The massive dumping of garbage and other household wastes in irrigation canals by squatters has greatly affected agricultural waterways in at least 15 municipalities and two cities in Central Luzon, National Irrigation Administration (NIA) revealed yesterday.

In an interview with The STAR, Engineer Manuel Collado, NIA regional irrigation manager for Central Luzon, deplored the state of NIA-maintained irrigation canals in the cities of Cabanatuan and Malolos, in the Nueva Ecija towns of Sta. Rosa, Talavera and Rizal, and in the Bulacan towns of San Miguel, San Ildefonso, San Rafael, Baliuag, Bocaue, Bulacan, Bustos, Calumpit, Guiguinto, Pulilan and Plaridel.

Collado said NIA canals in urban areas were the most prone to garbage dumping due to migration and urban blight.

NIA, he added, could not put up perimeter fences to protect the canals because this would be very expensive.

Collado said the dumping of wastes in these areas has already affected 10 percent of NIA’s irrigation canals.

However, he added, a greater cause of concern is that the indiscriminate dumping of trash has not spared the areas covered by the Angat-Maasim River Irrigation System (AMRIS), the system that feeds the Angat Dam and the country’s third largest irrigation system.

AMRIS, which services 26,792 hectares of agricultural lands, is also one of Manila’s main water source.

Waste dumping, Collado explained, results in heavy siltation, clogs waterways and reduces the irrigation capacity of the canal systems from the main canals, lateral canals, sub-lateral canals, sub sub-lateral canals and farm ditches.