PUDTOL, Apayao – The Cordillera office of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA-CAR) admitted the construction of the P294 million West Abulug Irrigation System (WAIS) in this municipality continues to suffer from a serious setback following the recorded slippages of the contractor on its overall accomplishment through the years.
Engr. John Socalo, NIA-CAR regional irrigation manager, expressed fears that the project will be terminated by the agency because of the snail-paced construction activities being done in major works within the main canal, dam and laterals of the major irrigation system designed to serve thousands of hectares of unirrigated farmlands in lower Apayao and nearby Cagayan towns.
“We fear that the WAIS project will suffer the same fate as that of the Upper Chico River irrigation system in Kalinga which was unilaterally terminated early this year,” Socalo stressed.
The NIA-CAR official explained some P50 million of programmed works might not be completed by the contractor once their contract will be terminated and the funding agency, the World Bank, will not allow the use of the available funds to continue the project, meaning, NIA will have to provide for the funds to complete the remaining uncompleted rehabilitation of the canals and the dam itself.
According to him, he constantly reminded the contractor to work double time to guarantee increased accomplishment of their programmed works but his appeal fell on deaf ears as there had been no intensification of works during the dry season so the project could have been completed.
The construction of the WAIS is part of the World Bank project under the 5-year Philippine Irrigation Development Project (PIDP) aimed at developing the various irrigation systems in the different parts of the country.
Socalo expressed disappointment over the proposed termination of the multi-million irrigation development project in one of the provinces that is in dire need of an irrigation system capable of providing adequate irrigation to vast tracks of farmlands in the target areas.
He claimed it will be a wasted opportunity for the province to have a rehabilitated irrigation system that will expand its service areas that is terminated by the funding agency because of the alleged poor performance of the contractor that was commissioned by the agency to be its partner in the prosecution of the irrigation project that would benefit the majority of farmers in the service areas.
If the contractor was circumspect in projecting the difficulty of completing the programmed works, he should have requested for the variation in the plans that would fit the prevailing situation in the place to guarantee the completion of the works.
By HENT
