Benguet to reuse rainwater at strawberry farm to prevent floods

The strawberry farm is the top tourist drawer in La Trinidad, Benguet.

BAGUIO CITY—The seasonal heavy rainfall received by the tourist-drawing strawberry farm in Benguet province will soon be collected and “injected” back into the aquifer of the capital town La Trinidad to preserve its underground water supply while curbing floods.

The rainwater program is among the four science and technology initiatives being undertaken by “Program Boondock,” a collaboration of experts from Baguio and Cordillera universities, which was discussed during the Mountain Engineering Summit this week.

Launched on Monday, the “Artificial Groundwater Recharge” project for La Trinidad town involves the construction of catchment basins at the roof of the Benguet Agri Pinoy Trading Center (BAPTC) beside the strawberry farm, which used to be a swamp.

The rainwater collected at the BAPTC roof would be directed to special containment chambers and pumped 100 meters down the rock bed to recharge the aquifer, said Jacob Saytoc, senior research specialist of the Watershed and Water Resources Research Development and Extension Center (WWRRDEC), which is overseeing the project.

WWRRDEC is a research center run by the Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

A similar system would be put up at Burnham Park in Baguio in partnership with the Baguio Water District, said Nathaniel Vincent Lubrica, leader of Program Boondock, which is pushing through its second year of work using grants provided by the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development.

“The system would minimize surface run-off water during storms, thus reducing floods. By storing water, we would also have available water to be extracted during the summer season, which will help farmers,” Saytoc said.

Baguio and the communities within its vicinity receive an average of 3,500 to 3,800 millimeters of rainfall each year, yet the summer capital periodically suffers a water crisis, he said.

—VINCENT CABREZA

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