PULILAN, Bulacan?Farmers Rolando Cabrera, Augusto Giron and Francisco Roberto Jr. are praying for more rains these days.

Their farms in Barangay Sto. Cristo are part of the 7,000 hectares of rice lands in Bulacan and Pampanga that have not been planted since the start of the wet cropping season in June.

In February, at the onset of the dry cropping season, they did not plant as water level at the Angat Dam, some 56 km away, dropped to 157 meters above sea level (masl), the lowest on record on the heels of a new wave of the weather phenomenon El Niño, said Manuel Collado, director of the National Irrigation Authority (NIA) in Central Luzon.

Since April, the National Water Regulatory Board (NWRB) has stopped supplying water for irrigation to Bulacan and Pampanga.

Collado said while NIA has top priority for irrigation, it can?t overrule the NWRB.

Following the cut in irrigation in April, at least 5,000 hectares of rice lands, mostly in Pampanga, were heavily damaged, a NIA report said.

?Problematic seasons? is how Collado called the two cropping periods.

He complained against the priority given to water for Metro Manila?s 10 million residents. Angat Dam has been supported by the Umiray Dam in the boundary of Aurora and Quezon.

?I hope the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System would seriously develop other sources of water,? said Collado.

Nolando Lubo, a farmer from Barangay Concepcion in San Simon, Pampanga, began planting on Wednesday after the rains.

?I?m just taking chances. I will have to depend on the rains,? he said.

Collado said while the Angat reservoir?s level is just 7 meters short of its 180 masl normal operating capacity, this does not guarantee irrigation.

?By law, there should be an automatic release of water once the 180 masl level is reached. In practice, the priority is still domestic water use for Metro Manila,? he said.