NEWSFLASH

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MARCOS-BUILT DAM SAVES ECIJA FROM DROUGHT

Cabanatuan City, Nov. 14, 1997 - Manuel Collado, project director of the Casecnan Multi- purpose Project bordering Cagayan Valley and Nueva Ecija, credits Pantabangan Dam for saving farm lands in Central Luzon from effects of the drought caused by El Nino.

"The Pantabangan Dam has been utilized fully since it was completed in 1974. Were it not for the dam, the drought would have a severe effect on the farm lands in Central Luzon." he said.

Angat Dam, normally supplying water to Bulacan's farms, is now utilized mainly for Metro Manila's residential water needs, leaving the farms of Bulacan arid. Central Luzon and Metro Manila now has to rely solely on Nueva Ecija's 47,000 hectares of rice farms irrigated by Pantabangan for its rice supply.

Collado said the dam, in normal times, supplies irrigation to about 100,000 hectares of rice land in Central Luzon. In these days of drought, the dam serves as an influencing factor in sustaining the cycle in the water table in Nueva Ecija and adjoining provinces.

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