Construction goes full blast on irrigation dam

ENGINEERS and laborers at work on the irrigation project, touted to be one of the biggest in Mindanao CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

DAVAO CITY—Construction work on what is touted to be one of the biggest irrigation projects in Mindanao is being rushed in Cateel town, Davao Oriental province, so it could be finished before the end of the month.

Davao Oriental Gov. Corazon Malanyaon said she was hoping that the P256-million “big-ticket project” would be inaugurated by October, two months after its completion target date on Aug. 31.

She said the provincial government was rushing work on the project, adding in a statement that engineers and workers had been putting the project together on a 24-hour basis during the last two months.

The irrigation project, funded by the provincial government and the Mindanao Rural Development Program (MRDP)- World Bank, started in 2011.

But Typhoon “Pablo” destroyed most of the completed work in December 2012.

Subsequent calamities, including Tropical Depression “Agaton,” further delayed the project.

Malanyaon said that despite the delay, construction has resumed and the project is now about to be completed.

She said that as of now, work on the project’s three packages was “significantly making remarkable gains.”

Package One, which consists of diversion work, is 91 percent complete. Package Two, which involves the construction of canals, is 92 percent done.

The construction of the massive project required determination, according to Malanyaon.

“It’s a test of our endurance, our patience and our determination,” she said.

During a visit to the site in Cateel on Aug. 18, MRDP program director Lealyn Ramos admitted that the agency had been pressing the Davao Oriental government to finish the project by the end of the month.

When fully functional, the irrigation system would benefit an additional 1,600 hectares of rice fields in 11 villages of Cateel, which were previously dependent on rain.

Malanyaon said the project was a “valuable investment on developing the rice production potentials of the province.”

“We see that this irrigation system can help us achieve

100 percent rice sufficiency, which in turn can also contribute to the country’s food sufficiency,” she said. Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao