Amid the pandemic, the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) has completed and delivered four irrigation projects with an aggregate cost of P913.7 million in the Province of Bohol.
These projects are the P645-million Benliw Small Reservoir Irrigation Project (Benliw SRIP); P260-million Catigbian Small Water Impounding Project (Catigbian SWIP); P4.5-million Oghob Small Irrigation Project (Oghob SIP); and the P4.2-million Kagawasan Communal Irrigation Project (Kagawasan CIP).
Located in the Municipality of Ubay, Benliw SRIP is a medium-scale irrigation development project that will source its water from Pasanan Creek.
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.
Included in the project is the construction of a 21-meter-high zoned earthfill dam with a length of 517 meters, a reservoir with a catchment area of 5.60 square kilometres that can store 2.86 million cubic meters (mcm) of water, irrigation and drainage canals, and other appurtenant structures.
Aside from irrigation, the project is also expected to provide other incidental benefits, such as flood control, watershed management, aqua-culture as a supplementary food source to the residents in the area, and soil conservation since it prevents the soil from eroding or reducing fertility caused by over-usage.
The Catigbian SWIP is located in the town of Buenavista and will source water from Catigbian Creek.
The project will provide year-round irrigation water supply to 60 hectares of agricultural land in barangays of Catigbian in Buenavista and San Carlos in Danao, benefitting 60 farmers and their families.
Its reservoir has a total storage capacity of 0.322 million cubic meter (MCM) and the project will include the construction of a 16.54-meter-high embankment dam with a total width of 6 meters, crest elevation of 152 meters, and crest length of 260 meters.
Meanwhile, Oghob SIP is situated in the town of Batuan and will source water from Oghob Spring. The project includes the construction of two check dams with two intakes, nine units of thresher crossing, 4 turn ins, and one turnout.
It has two stilling basins, two road crossings with a total length of 208 meters of main canal, and 1,173 meters of concrete lateral canal.
The project will irrigate 44 hectares of agricultural land in Barangay Quirino with 34 farmer-beneficiaries.
Lastly, Kagawasan CIP is located in the Municipality of San Miguel and is funded under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program – Irrigation Component (CARP-IC) under force account works.
The project has a total service area of 25 hectares and generated area of 15 hectares, serving the farmers of Barangay Kagawasan with a year-round irrigation water supply.
It includes the construction of a check dam, canal structure with an elevated flume of 50 meters, two units of drainage system, five turnouts, and three units of thresher crossing. The main canal has a total length of 661 meters.