Forest fires aggravate drought in Cordillera

By Dexter A. See

BONTOC, Mountain Province — Unabated burning of forests is aggravating drought that caused massive agricultural damage in this region, an irrigation management expert said.

“Forest fires are now a daily and nightly scene in this mountainous province that claims to have 80 percent forest cover,” said Delfin Aglit, Engineering Division Chief of the Irrigation Management Office

Aglit, an engineer, said the drought, which started early November last year, has rendered most water sources and watersheds of irrigation canals to dry up and that the continued destruction of watersheds aggravates the situation.

With this, Aglit said the region must brace for more agriculture damages as water sources for communal irrigation systems are drying up due to the long dry spell.

IMO officials have appealed to irrigators’ associations in the different parts of the province and nearby Kalinga to protect their water sources and watersheds from denudation and forest fires.

Aglit said if rain comes this April, there are chances that crops planted in December last year and January this year whose sources of water have dried up will survive until harvest season later in the year.

If not, the plants will die and render tremendous losses to farmers, he said.

Irrigation officials, however, said rice paddies and vegetable gardens whose irrigation sources are big rivers, like the Chico River, will weather the adverse effects of the prolonged dry spell, provided that there will be a continuous flow of sufficient water coming from the upland communities and the watershed areas.

As a mitigating measure, the IMO is continuing its rehabilitation programs by placing concrete linings in existing irrigation canals to prevent water seepage.

Its latest figures show that the IMO has assisted 225 irrigation systems which services 3,829 hectares of vegetables gardens and rice paddies throughout northern Luzon.