NEWSFLASH

10,000 HECTARES OF LAHAR-AFFECTED FARMS GET WATER PROJECT

San Fernando, Jan. 17, 2000 Some 10,000 hectares of lahar-affected farms will be irrigated by the Pampanga Delta Irrigation Dam project, the first of its kind in Asia with a shell-type movable gate structure. It is expected to benefit at least 7,000 farmers.

President Estrada, who inspected the Pampanga Delta Irrigation Dam last Saturday, told residents in the lahar-ravaged areas of Central Luzon that his administration will closely monitor and ensure the completion of other priority projects in the area.

Agriculture Secretary Edgardo Angara said the P3.4 billion Japanese-assisted project is part of the Agrikulturang Makamasa program to boost agricultural production in Central Luzon and reduce poverty in Pampanga.

The project is targeted to be fully completed in 2002, but some of its components benefit local farmers earlier than expected, Angara said. These include new pumping stations to irrigate 2,943 hectares in some Pampanga towns, according to Administrator Manuel Arevalo of the National Irrigation Administration.

Another component is the immediate improvement of existing pumping stations and accelerated repair and rehabilitation of existing irrigation canals.

But the major component is the construction of a diversion dam with desalting facilities, in anticipation of thousands of tons of lahar still expected to flow down from the slopes of Mt. Pinatubo.

To benefit from the project's irrigation water are 2,751 hectares of farmland in Arayat; 2,060 hectares in Sta. Ana; 2,020 hectares in Mexico; 1.353 hectares in San Luis; 1,040 hectares in San Simon, and 1,333 hectare sin Candaba.