The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) said it inaugurated two Small Reservoir Irrigation Projects (SRIPs) with an aggregate cost of P1.523 billion.
These projects are the P645-million Benliw Small Reservoir Irrigation Project (Benliw SRIP) located in the Municipality of Ubay, Bohol, which was inaugurated on May 27 and the P878-million Upper Tabuating SRIP in the Municipality of General Tinio, Nueva Ecija, which was inaugurated on May 25.
Benliw SRIP, whose water source comes from Pasanan Creek, includes the construction of a 21-meter-high zoned earthfill dam with a length of 517 meters, irrigation and drainage canals, and other appurtenant structures. Its reservoir has a catchment area of 5.60 square kilometers that can store 2.86 million cubic meters of water.
“The project is expected to provide timely and reliable irrigation water supply to 400 hectares of agricultural land in barangays of Benliw, Emelda, Cagting, and Sinandigan, benefitting 600 farmers and their families,” NIA said in a statement.
Aside from irrigation, the project is also expected to provide other incidental benefits, such as flood control, watershed management, agro-tourism promotion, soil conservation, and aqua-culture.
Meanwhile, Upper Tabuating SRIP, whose water source comes from Tabuating River, entails the construction of an earthfill dam with a height of 25.56 meters above the lowest streambed and a length of 760 meters. Its reservoir has a water storage capacity of 4.96 million cubic meters.
Completed in December 2020, the dam is able to irrigate the entirety of its target service area of 700.87 hectares. It covers the barangays of Nazareth, Rio Chico, Bago, and San Mariano in the municipalities of General Tinio and Peñaranda in Nueva Ecija, benefitting 223 farmers and their families.
Read full article on BusinessMirror
