Conserve Water,
MKWD Tells Concessionaires
Kalibo’s and nearby Aklan towns’ water supply is sufficient but everybody must conserve it, because this life-giving commodity is being utilized but not replenished.
This call came from Metro Kalibo Water District General Manager Renato Albar who assured that despite the increased demand for water connections due to a growing population, the water district’s source, which is the Aklan River, filtered through wells, is still adequate.
"We are fortunate here in Aklan because we have abundant water which is clean and of good quality. However, there is still a need to raise the awareness of Aklanons that water is very important for our existence, socially and economically, and that everyone must learn to conserve it" Albar said.GM Albar revealed that currently, the Metro Kalibo District is also serving the water needs of residents of Kalibo’s adjoining municipalities like New Washington, Banga, Balete and the three barangays of Batan.
Talks are still on-going, according to Albar, for the MKWD’s extension of its services to other towns, although some have already established their own water systems.
Even as Kalibo, or Aklan in general, enjoys an adequate supply of water, Albar said the MKWD, together with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), is currently developing a 150 hectare water shed area in the town of Madalag to ensure the steady and sustained supply of water in the years to come.
The community-based project is now being planted with narra, agoho, lanzones and other fruit trees by the residents themselves who are paid for their accomplishment by the MKWD. The DENR, for its part, provides the much-needed technical assistance.
Derlito Rico, Environment Management Specialist (EMS) of the DENR here, also revealed that talks are ongoing on the National Irrigation Administration’s possible development of another 150 hectares as an additional water shed area adjacent to the one developed by the MKWD and the DENR together with the community. NIA also sources its water supply for farmers from the Aklan river.
In Aklan, Rico said, the province is lucky to experience rains late afternoon and at night. The province of Aklan is maintaining sufficient vegetative and forest cover through the Panay Northwest Peninsula, the Campo Verde and the Panay Mountain Ranges Natural Park which enhances rains.
The vegetative cover, according to Rico, sequesters carbon dioxide, which it uses for food production, and the cycle contributes more rains and cool winds.
Rubber Dam To Solve Aklan’s
Irrigation Need
To construct a rubber dam across the Aklan rivers in Aklan will permanently solve the water woes of the farmers every rice cropping season, the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) office, Banga, Aklan stressed.
Farmers in the western side of Aklan, where the Aklan-Panakuyan River Irrigation System (APRIS) is, planted late this cropping season due to the reduced volume of water discharged by the river, which could not be elevated to the intake gates of irrigation canals leading to rice farms, thus, the late planting.
The reduced volume of water, according to the NIA, is beyond its control. The absence of rain in the month of May reduced the water level way below the intake gates and there is no diversion dam contructed in the river system. The NIA office also observed that there was a substantial lowering of the river bed because of quarrying sand and gravel aggregates extractions.
Engr. Rizalo Concepcion, OIC of the Aklan-Panakuyan RIS and concurrently the Provincial Irrigation Officer of NIA-Aklan cited the above reasons when asked to justify to the NIA Administrator why the delivery of irrigation water of Aklan-Panakuyan River Irrigation system came late. "Temporary remedial measures are continuously being done to rechannel the river and build a coffer dam to elevate and train water flow from the river to the intake, but constructing a rubber dam would be more effective to permanently solve the problem," Concepcion stressed.
Despite the late delivery of irrigation water to farms, the farmers served by the Aklan-Panakuyan RIS, as of July, already had their farms planted 95 percent, according to NIA. The rice farms served by the RIS comprise 4,000 hectares. /MP
This call came from Metro Kalibo Water District General Manager Renato Albar who assured that despite the increased demand for water connections due to a growing population, the water district’s source, which is the Aklan River, filtered through wells, is still adequate.
"We are fortunate here in Aklan because we have abundant water which is clean and of good quality. However, there is still a need to raise the awareness of Aklanons that water is very important for our existence, socially and economically, and that everyone must learn to conserve it" Albar said.GM Albar revealed that currently, the Metro Kalibo District is also serving the water needs of residents of Kalibo’s adjoining municipalities like New Washington, Banga, Balete and the three barangays of Batan.
Talks are still on-going, according to Albar, for the MKWD’s extension of its services to other towns, although some have already established their own water systems.
Even as Kalibo, or Aklan in general, enjoys an adequate supply of water, Albar said the MKWD, together with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), is currently developing a 150 hectare water shed area in the town of Madalag to ensure the steady and sustained supply of water in the years to come.
The community-based project is now being planted with narra, agoho, lanzones and other fruit trees by the residents themselves who are paid for their accomplishment by the MKWD. The DENR, for its part, provides the much-needed technical assistance.
Derlito Rico, Environment Management Specialist (EMS) of the DENR here, also revealed that talks are ongoing on the National Irrigation Administration’s possible development of another 150 hectares as an additional water shed area adjacent to the one developed by the MKWD and the DENR together with the community. NIA also sources its water supply for farmers from the Aklan river.
In Aklan, Rico said, the province is lucky to experience rains late afternoon and at night. The province of Aklan is maintaining sufficient vegetative and forest cover through the Panay Northwest Peninsula, the Campo Verde and the Panay Mountain Ranges Natural Park which enhances rains.
The vegetative cover, according to Rico, sequesters carbon dioxide, which it uses for food production, and the cycle contributes more rains and cool winds.
Rubber Dam To Solve Aklan’s
Irrigation Need
To construct a rubber dam across the Aklan rivers in Aklan will permanently solve the water woes of the farmers every rice cropping season, the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) office, Banga, Aklan stressed.
Farmers in the western side of Aklan, where the Aklan-Panakuyan River Irrigation System (APRIS) is, planted late this cropping season due to the reduced volume of water discharged by the river, which could not be elevated to the intake gates of irrigation canals leading to rice farms, thus, the late planting.
The reduced volume of water, according to the NIA, is beyond its control. The absence of rain in the month of May reduced the water level way below the intake gates and there is no diversion dam contructed in the river system. The NIA office also observed that there was a substantial lowering of the river bed because of quarrying sand and gravel aggregates extractions.
Engr. Rizalo Concepcion, OIC of the Aklan-Panakuyan RIS and concurrently the Provincial Irrigation Officer of NIA-Aklan cited the above reasons when asked to justify to the NIA Administrator why the delivery of irrigation water of Aklan-Panakuyan River Irrigation system came late. "Temporary remedial measures are continuously being done to rechannel the river and build a coffer dam to elevate and train water flow from the river to the intake, but constructing a rubber dam would be more effective to permanently solve the problem," Concepcion stressed.
Despite the late delivery of irrigation water to farms, the farmers served by the Aklan-Panakuyan RIS, as of July, already had their farms planted 95 percent, according to NIA. The rice farms served by the RIS comprise 4,000 hectares. /MP
No comments:
Post a Comment