CABANATUAN CITY – Mayor rivers and creeks in several places in Nueva Ecija may be drying out, but crop production is in no danger of suffering any decrease or slowdown due to the presence of a huge reserve of irrigation water from the mammoth Pantabangan dam.

Thus spoke Engr. Antonio Nangel, National Irrigation Administration-Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation Service (NIA-UPRIIS) operations manager in an interview with this writer the other day.

Nangel said he is surprised why everybody is saying that the disastrous effects of the El Niño phenomenon are prevalent in Luzon including Nueva Ecija. 

“This is not true,” he stressed.

He said that other areas would be importing rice to serve as their buffer stocks but he reported to Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Matias Umali that Nueva Ecija could supply local needs and be able to supply the lean areas.

On the positive side, Nangel said that the current rice crop here would even surpass the past year’s record.  He said that due to the lack of unwanted rainfall at the time that the palay are in the critical flowering stage, and the presence of adequate supply of irrigation water, the unhampered growth of the plants ensure a high production level. 

He boldly predicted an average harvest of 100 to 120 cavans per hectare of the inbred palay variety due to this phenomenon.

Nangel said that at its present elevation of 194 meters, the province can accommodate a quick turn around (QTA) of a third crop after the main and dry season cropping.  Nangel credited the judicious release of water from the Pantabangan dam’s reservoir that saved the day from overflowing and/or losing the much-needed life enhancer.

Nangel said his office had devised certain augmentation measures to counter the effects of climate change as shown by the harmful effects of El Niño phenomenon.

He disclosed the utilization of a total of 24,000 hectares intended for the rationing of newly harvested palay crops.  The PhilRice and the IRRI would be assisting the local farmers in this novel enterprise.

In two months time, harvest will come, with only a minimal cost of one bag of fertilizer per hectare to cost the farmers.  About 40 cavans per hectare are expected to be harvested.

Nangel said the supply of water in the dam’s reservoir is enough to extend to the use of the next cropping season, the wet season, and may even be used to augment the irrigation needs of Angat Dam in nearby Bulacan.

As of now, Pantabangan dam has sustained its support of the farm needs of a sizeable area in San Ildefonso in Bulacan for at least the past couple of years.  

Asked how he managed to keep a decent supply of dam water where other dams in Luzon are currently suffering from a negligible supply, Nangel said it is only a matter of conservative management know-how and support of the local provincial government, under Gov. Aurelio Umali.

During the critical period of the devastation stages of destructive Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng, Nangel said Gov. Umali had coordinated with him in a round-the-clock watch of the dam’s water level late last year.

He said Gov. Umali even had to use his connection with the authorities of Casecnan dam in checking its rampaging water input into the already filling Pantabangan dam. 

“Were it not for that effort, the dam would have overfilled and caused massive flooding of the towns immediately downriver in the Pampanga River course.

However, Nangel said he noted a 70 percent decline in the water level of the major rivers of the province, such as Cornel, Digmala, Peñaranda, Morcon and Vaca Dam. 

For those upland areas where the water level of the rivers has gone down, Nangel recommended the use of generators to siphon or pump water to feed the outlying farmlands.