Water flows to Pantabangan barangay after 40 years

PANTABANGAN, Nueva Ecija, Philippines – Some 170 hectares of agricultural lands in Barangay Conversion here, the home of the giant Pantabangan Dam, finally received irrigation after almost half a century, following the installation of a mini dam by the National Irrigation Administration (NIA).

Manuel Collado, NIA regional irrigation manager for Central Luzon, said a total of 650 hectares of farmlands would be irrigated upon completion of the P298-million dam, the construction of which started in January 2010.

Conversion belonged to the original barangays submerged in the 1970s to pave the way for the construction of the World Bank-funded Pantabangan Dam.

While Pantabangan Dam irrigates 102,000 hectares of agricultural lands in Central Luzon, not a single drop of water flows to Conversion, which is one kilometer upstream and isolated from the rest of the barangays.

Antonio Reyes, former president of the NIA Employees Association and a resident of this town, said that since Conversion was made an “outcast” from the Pantabangan Dam, he and other officials of the association asked NIA to finance the construction of the mini-dam so farmers in the rain-fed area would receive irrigation.

Collado and then-NIA administrator Carlos Salazar approved the funding for the project which was finally realized when Antonio Nangel was appointed NIA administrator by President Aquino.