Expecting Boasaw waters before end of 2015

HAPPY WEEKEND

Gina Dizon

SAGADA  Mountain Province -- Following the monitoring of the P36  million Boasaw  irrigation and domestic  works project,  Mountain Province  coordinator Beverly Pekas  of  the Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resource  Management Project (CHARMP)- Department of Agriculture said waters shall be reaching the town not long before the end of the year.

This is the distribution tank at Palidan, Bangaan specially built for the Boasaw waters for irrigation waters of Tanulong
and domestic waters of  Poblacion Sagada. 

This  irrigation and domestic  waterworks project with a  200 percent plus slippage rate has been  going through stressful implementation; supposed to have  been completed but have not seen completion due to  bad  engineering design, snags in  tank  construction and  issues in mainline tapping.

Said project contracted by Cotabato- based FFJJ Construction was bid out December 2011 and implementation in February of 2012 with P18 million from the priority development assistance funds (PDAF) of Sen. Teofisto Guingona 111 and P18 million from CHARMP. Implementation however was questioned by the Sangguniang Bayan of 2012 because of the plan did not reach the intended 15 barangay beneficiaries as it called for a redesign of the project.

Following  talks with the  SB in 2012,  Mayor  Eduardo Latawan  said  two 4-inch diameter pipes shall be connected from the  6-inch pipe connected  from the  water source. A request for extension was granted which began the waterworks August 2012 for the less than a year duration project with the addition of 2 million pesos from the Bottoms up Budgetting (BUB) process for additional pipes to reach intended 15 beneficiaries and redesign of tanks.

The LGU however did not follow what the latter committed in this LGU-DA-CHARMP-FFJJ project called Improvement of  Buasao  Irrigation System and Construction of  Tanulong Tribe Irrigators Association Water Services  where only one  4-inch pipe instead of two was connected from the  6-inch  pipe  connected from the main Boasaw dam.

This is now the subject of the redesigned flow of waters from the main source to Palidan, Bangaan distribution tank with addition of pipes and construction of three intake tanks from the main source to ensure the full flow of waters.

Engineer Windel Baaten of CHARMP who monitored the project said volumes of water was being wasted thus above recommendation to the LGU and the contracting firm to correct this.  

Following monitoring of the redesigned project, Baaten said an 8-inch pipe had been connected from the water canal connected from the 6-inch diameter pipe from the main Boasaw dam two weeks ago.

The rest of the suggestions remain to be seen as the months pass by -- from an 8-inch diameter pipe connected from the water canal gets connected to a 6 inch pipe passing through the already constructed tunnel located within the common grounds with Tubo, Abra.

From the tunnel, a tank shall be built from where two 4-inch diameter pipes shall be connected to another tank with a  4-inch diameter pipe laid out to the Palidan  distribution tank.

The new design is meant to ensure waters shall not be wasted along the connections on to the distribution tank at Palidan, Bangaan.

Earlier, only one 4-inch diameter pipe was connected from the 6-inch pipe connected from the Boasaw dam.

Expense for the redesign of the water flow takes remaining 15 percent of the balance of the P36 million fund. 

With 200% plus slippage of the project, the project has not yet seen full realization as noted in feasibility study to provide water to 15 barangays.

So far, only the eastern barangays have tasted water for a very brief moment of three months in the second quarter of 2014 after which the waters stopped coming while irrigation waters consistently flowed with complaints from the Tanulong folks that water is not enough.

Earlier a 6-inch pipe was connected from the main source to the water canal with 6-inch pipe passing through the tunnel constructed within the earlier questioned territory of  Tubo, Abra who questioned why no prior consent was secured from them. From the tunnel, one 4-inch pipe was connected  toPalidan with a 4-inch pipe leading to Tanulong irrigation and a 2-inch pipe leading to eastern barangays. Two inch pipes were also laid out to the Poblacion barangays .

The waterworks project, as noted during a meeting with CHARMP and LGU officers March this year does not accommodate pipes leading to homes but only to identified public f aucets within clustered households.  

 Said meeting held March this year talked about formation of barangay-based water associations wherever waters come from and also talked about metering consumption when Boasaw waters shall finally see realization in town.