The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) has approved the first set of priority irrigation projects to be pursued under the public-private partnerships (PPP) program this year.
The projects collectively require funding of P37.9 billion under PPP and include the Ilocos Norte – Ilocos Sur – Abra irrigation project II (INISAIP II), Tumauini river multipurpose project (TRMP) and the upper Banaoang irrigation project.
Of the three, INISAIP II is the most expensive at P22.7 billion but will irrigate approximately 11,100 hectares of agricultural land with water from the Palsiguan river to sub-areas of the province of Ilocos Norte such as Nueva Era, Cura, Madupayas, Pinili, Badoc-Sinait and Batac-Paoay through a network of link canals.
INISAIP II will also serve functions for culture, eco-tourism, hydropower generation and other recreational activities to help generate job opportunities for the community and constituents.
The TRMP will cost P8.6 billion and expand the existing Tumauini irrigation system (TIS) to 32 barangays in the municipalities of Tumauini, Cabagan, and the city of Ilagan, Isabela.
The TIS was originally designed to irrigate 6,100 hectares but only around 3,000 hectares are irrigated due to insufficient water-river runoff, especially during the dry months.
The TRMP involves the construction of a high dam, afterbay dam and long siphon, as well as works to expand existing irrigation facilities and provide incidental benefits such as watershed management, eco-tourism and infrastructure support for renewable energy, particularly hydropower and solar farm components.
The upper Banaoang irrigation project costing P6.6 billion aims to construct an impounding dam with the Malapaao river in Abra as its water source.
The project has a potential service area of 5,000 hectares of agricultural land.
Earlier, the NIA signed a memorandum of agreement with the PPP Center creating joint technical groups evaluating an initial 12 potential irrigation projects for PPP implementation, marking the three projects as priorities.
