Paje urges construction of water impounding facilities

Environment Secretary Ramon Paje    INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Environment Secretary Ramon Paje on Saturday pushed for the construction of more water impounding facilities such as dams ease flooding  and to enable the irrigation of farms during the dry season.

In a press statement, Paje said the construction of small water impounding dams (SWID) was part of the physical development plan proposed by the Cabinet cluster on climate change.

Rainwater harvesting facilities like SWIDs are proven effective for managing rainwater which could be used as a supplemental source of water for irrigation, he said.

“Rainwater can be managed as a resource if it is captured upstream and used during summer for agriculture,” Paje said.

Paje cited the case of the town of Muñoz in Nueva Ecija, which was able to significantly increase rice production by storing rainwater.

He said that the government, through the Department of Public Works and Highways, was planning to build a water catchment dam upstream of the Marikina River.

He said the dam would double as a flood-mitigating measure to improve the level of preparedness of vulnerable communities and as a source of irrigation water during the summer months.

“The idea is to catch the water when it is available and to release it when it is needed like, for example, during the dry season for agriculture use,” Paje said.

But Paje clarified that the construction of SWIDs and other water catchment facilities would only be supplementary to the overall objective of increasing the carrying capacity of the watersheds through massive and sustained reforestation under the Aquino administration’s National Greening Program.

“In the short term, SWIDs would enable us to achieve this but the ideal is still to bring back the forest cover to our watershed areas,” he said.