Irrigation woes hound Pangasinan rice farms

DAGUPAN CITY — About 2,000 hectares of rice lands in five Pangasinan towns may not get irrigation water from San Roque Dam in San Manuel town this second cropping season, a provincial agriculture official said.

Insufficient reservoir water will affect farms in the towns of Santa Barbara, Malasiqui, Villasis, Laoac and Mangaldan, said Nestor Batalla, assistant provincial agriculturist.

Tom Valdez, vice president for corporate social responsibility of the San Roque Power Corp., confirmed this, saying that no typhoon passed over the Agno River basin this year and “we had abnormal rainfall.” On Saturday, the dam’s water level was 269 meters above sea level (masl).

To irrigate all the programmed areas under the Agno River Irrigation System, the dam’s reservoir level should be 280 masl, Valdez said. —Gabriel Cardinoza