Dams water level normal
The four major damns in Bohol survived the drought as their water level remains above critical level as the last of monitoring.
As of the May 16 monitoring, the water level at Malinao Dam in the town of Pilar was at 151.79 meters, which is close to its full capacity of 152 meters, and much above the critical level of 146.5 meters.
In San Miguel, Bayungan Dam water level was at 44.58 meters, below its full capacity of 52 meters, but above the critical level of 41 meters.
The water level at Capayas Dam in Ubay was 33.14 meters which is close to its full capacity of 36.5 meters and above the critical of 30 meters.
At Talibon Dam, the water level which was at 25.82 meters also went near to its full capacity of 13 meters and above the 21 meters.
This is despite the long period of the dry season and low rainfall.
Leon Parac Jr. of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist reported this as he express confidence that the unset of the rainy season might help in increasing the water levels at the four major dams in Bohol.
Formers in sum towns usually start planting and undertake land preparation when rainfall would improve in the last week of May.
Before the recent intermittent rains, the provincial government has prepared for rounds of cloud seeding operations anytime this month, considering rainfall had been below normal in the past months.
The Office of the Provincial Agriculturist wanted to ensure that there would be enough irrigation for the ricefields in the next dry cropping season in May and June.
The provincial government already prepared the P2.3-million allocation for the cloud seeding operation as of last year yet “aside from the P2.5M from the Bureau of Soil and Water Management (BSWM) which was already downloaded to Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office (DARFO) 7”and was bidded in March this year.
Of the 56,913 hectares of ricefields in Bohol, there are 23,993.68 hectares that rely on irrigation and the 32,919.53 on rain.
As of 2016, there used to be only 47,000 hectares of ricefields in bohol where around 24,000 hectares are irrigated, while 23,000 hectares are rainfed.
Usually in the first week of June, the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) will start releasing water from Malinao dam to the farmlands.
The P1.4-billion Malinao dam spanning 300 hectares in Pilar serves 5,000 hectares of rice fields in the town and the adjacent areas.
Aside from collecting water from rain, Malinao dam is also a run of a river type relying on the water from Wahig and Pamacsalan Rivers.
NIA-7 prioritizes areas located farther from Malinao Dam that had not been irrigated for a period of time during the drought.
NIA-7 targets to supply around 700 hectares of rice fields in Pilar adjacent towns.
Tha Zamora dam in Talibon, the least affected by drought, would usually release water earlier by two weeks.
Malinao Dam improvement has been proposed for foreign funding.
Upgrading the Malinao Dam would double thew water storage capacity of the dam from 5 million cubic meters to 10 million cubic meters which could irrigate and additional 2,730 hectares of rice lands in northeast Bohol.
From its present 5.99 million cubic meters- -5 million cubic meters from its active reservoir and 0.99 million cubic meters from its dead reservoir, to a total of 9.1 million cubic meters- -8.11 from the active and 0.99 from the dead reservoir.
The improvement will make Malinao Dam capable of reaching additional 920 hectares.
The feasibility study also showed that an upgraded Malinao Dam would be instrumental in increasing and stabilizing the farmer’s income by 70 percent and meeting the increasing consumption demand in Bohol.
Bohol has existing irrigation systems under Bohol Irrigation Project (BHIP) phase 1 and phase 2. Phase 1 covers the Malinao System finished in 1997 and Japanese grant-funded CapayasSystem in 1991, and phase 2 that covers the Bayongan System finished in 2008.
However, these could hardly provide sufficient irrigation water to Malinao Dam, because financial constraints and land disputes left some areas undeveloped, lack of irrigation facilities like farm ditch, and left leveling works in some areas unfinished.
On this, NIA-7 and the past provincial administrations had requested for BHIP phase 3 which will cover the upgrading of Malinao Dam.
Improvement of Malinao Dam also expected to trigger a series of communal irrigation systems.
The NIA record showed that BHIP-1 irrigates 4,960 hectares and BHIP 2 irrigates 5,400 hectares of ricefields in Pilar, Alicia, Ubay, Trinidad, San Miguel and Dagohoy. The proposed improvement includes a small hydro power plant at the outlet and of Malinao Dam and diversion chute between Malinao and Bayongan dams that would enhance the efficiency of water resource utilization
This gives an opportunity to include the rehabilitation of Pamacsalan watershed as earlier proposed.
