P7-B power dam nears completion in 2 months

By Jennelyn Mondejar

SAN MANUEL, Pangasinan — Builders of the P7-billion irrigation project component of the multipurpose hydroelectric San Roque power dam, here, assured Monday of its completion in two months or even less.

Engineer Raynaldo Mencias, project manager of the Agno River Integrated Irrigation Program, said the the 560-megawatt power facility is now 95 percent complete.

Mencias said preparations are already under way for the inauguration the project’s 86-hectare re-regulating pond which is being constructed mainly from a US$89.1 million (roughly P3.7 billion) soft loan with China Export-Import Bank.

The Chinese contractor, China Camce Engineering Ltd., which won the bidding at a contract price of US$93.8 million (arounc P4 billion), is now rushing up the installation of the electrical and mechanical systems for the giant pond’s valve gates and spillways, Mencias said.

Considered the country’s biggest irrigation project, the facility is expected to be commissioned on the last week of November following inaugural rites to be led by President Benigno S. Aquino III in time for the second cropping season, Mencias said.

Once operational, the pond will increase crop yield and cropping intensity by 150 percent with the full irrigation of 34,450 hectares of farmlands on opposite banks of the Agno river, according to a study by ARIIP, an adjunct agency of the Department of Agriculture.

“The Chinese engineers are all young, full of vitality and work on precision,” the ARIIP chief noted, as he pointed out that the accomplishment exceeds the expected target of 85 percent for the period.

The contractor started works on the project in early 2010 and latest reports said US$89-million has been spent in finishing the sprawling pond structure, upstream Ogle weir, dam intakes, spillway and operation house buildings on both banks of the river.

Using the national government’s counterpart fund of P4.1 billion, ARIIP is rushing up the rehabilitation of 67.06-kilometers of existing main irrigation canals, along with 327-85 kilometers of lateral canals.

Some 280-kilometers of farm-to-market roads are also in simultaneous rehabilitation works in anticipation of the increased farming activities within ARIIP’s service area covering 28,207 farm families in 18 towns of Pangasinan.

           

At a total cost of P11.2 billion, ARIIP as an irrigation component of the San Roque multipurpose dam, started in November 2006. The project is expected to go on full-swing services on or before December 2013 with the completion of rehabilitation works on all of ARIIP’s facilities.