Nueva Ecija braces for El Niño

CABANATUAN CITY, Philippines  – The provincial government of Nueva Ecija will hold a water summit tomorrow in preparation for the El Niño phenomenon.

Gov. Aurelio Umali will preside over the summit, which will be attended by officials of the Department of Agriculture, the National Irrigation  Administration (NIA), the water districts, the local government units, farmers’ representatives and irrigators’ associations who will formulate an action plan against the El Niño.

Umali said the event would try to identify areas in the province, which will be hit hard by the dry spell, and mitigate its impact on local farmers.

The summit, he said, would try to project the extent of damage as they expect a significant decline in palay and rice production.

“We will include the farmers in our consultations because they are the ones who will bear the brunt of the El Niño,” Umali said.

He said they would also look into improving the operations of irrigation canals to reduce water loss from the source to distribution areas.   

Last week, the Philippine Atmos-pheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) advised Filipinos to prepare for below normal rainfall in the last quarter of the year, as scientists are predicting the development of a “weak to moderate” El Niño.        

Pagasa administrator Vicente Malano said below normal rainfall is likely in most areas of Luzon and the Visayas, while near normal rainfall conditions are expected over Cagayan, Camarines Norte, Albay, Eastern and Central Visayas and most areas of Mindanao from October to December.

The last time an El Niño hit the country was in 2009 and experts said the phenomenon occurs every four to five years.

Umali said the province would have to prepare for the El Niño, as the water level in the Pantabangan Dam continues to drop at an alarming rate.

Last week, the dam’s water level was at 179.04 meters. According to NIA, it would take only 22 days of zero rainfall for the water level to drop to its critical level of 171 meters.

If the water level continues to drop, the dam, which serves over 100,000 hectares of farmlands in Nueva Ecija and parts of Bulacan, Pampanga and Tarlac, will be able to irrigate only 60 percent of these areas.

To address the drop in the dam’s water level, Umali said the provincial government released P1 million for the initial cloud seeding operation. The amount is apart from the financial support pledged by First Gen. Corp. and other private entities.

Umali said the province, being the home of the Pantabangan Dam, should be prioritized in the irrigation service over other provinces.          

He said the summit would pave the way for the creation of an inter-agency group that would look for other alternative sources of irrigation water to lessen the province’s dependence on Pantabangan Dam.