Ifugao mini-hydro project to help save rice terraces
A memorandum of agreement for the energy project was signed last week by Gov. Teodoro Baguilat Jr., Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes, and Mitsuru Shimizu, project manager of e8.
The mini-hydro plant in Ambangal, Kiangan was conceptualized in 2003 in response to the call for the preservation of the rice terraces and for a cheaper source of electricity in the Cordillera province.
The run-of-river hydropower plant, capable of producing 200 kilowatts of power, will be funded and implemented by e8, through the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), with the support of the Department of Energy and the Ifugao provincial government.
Community consultations and pre-feasibility studies were conducted last year.
The mini-hydro plant will be built soon after the affected communities have given their “free prior and informed consent.” It is expected to begin operations in 2009, Baguilat said.
E8 is a non-profit organization composed of nine leading electricity companies from the G8 countries. It promotes sustainable development through power sector projects and human capacity-building activities in developing countries.
Baguilat beamed that the Ambangal mini-hydro project is the “lucky number 7 project” of e8.
Upon completion, the plant “will create sustainable revenue for the terraces’ conservation,” said e8’s Toyoto Matsuoka.
Baguilat said part of the revenues from the plant’s power sales would finance a rice terraces conservation fund.
The fund would be used to rehabilitate the damaged rice terraces and communal irrigations, carry out a reforestation project, and enhance and promote traditional culture programs.
“The project is well designed as it incorporates environmental, social, cultural, economic and historical aspects,” Reyes said.
He added: “It provides livelihood and income to the community, thus improving the way of life of the people, and enhances one of the wonders of the world currently in danger of being delisted from the Heritage Sites of UNESCO.”
Baguilat described the project as “a miracle not only for me but for the people of Ifugao” as it would provide the Ifugao Electric Cooperative with a cheaper source of energy.
Baguilat is hopeful that the project would attract other investors to put up social enterprise projects in his province.
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