Jun Torres

P13.59-B project is seen to solve Metro water woes
Balintingon reservoir to augment La Mesa Dam’s water volume

CABANATUAN CITY – The P13.59-billion Balintingon Reservoir Multipurpose Project (BRMP) whose construction is expected to start in early 2009 is expected to solve the perennial problem of Metro Manila.

NIA Regional Irrigation Manager Manuel Collado said here that the BRMP project is the answer to the drinking water requirement of Metro Manila residents, whose only source is the La Mesa Dam.

It could also provide irrigation water for Bulacan, relieve Angat Dam of the burden of irrigating the farms in the province, and augment the water at La Mesa Dam.

The La Mesa Dam, which irrigates some 30,000 hectares of farms in northern Bulacan, may be utilized instead to augment its portable water supply, it was learned.

Although irrigation authorities would not name the proponent of the build-operate-transfer (BOT) project that would bankroll the construction of BRMP, they hinted that funds are available and that the construction would start by early 2009.

The BRMP is now on the critical stage of securing an environmental impact assessment (EIA) through the conduct of scoping or public hearing on the impact of the project.

The hearing will be participated in by the beneficiary-residents of General Tinio and Cabanatuan City on the Nueva Ecija side, and San Miguel and San Ildefonso on the Bulacan side.

NIA-UPRIIS Operations Manager Antonio S. Nagel said the BRMP was first formulated under the “irrigation Development Plan for Central Luzon,” whose feasibility studies were completed in 1983.

Its source of water is the Sumacbao River.

The Sumacbao dam project was originally designed to replace the Aurora-Peñaranda Irrigation Project (APIP) as source of additional irrigation water for southern Nueva Ecija which is being serviced by the Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation System (UPRIIS), which includes the Pantabangan Dam.
The P13.59-billion Balintingon Reservoir Multipurpose Project (BRMP) has a foreign-component cost of P9.38 billion. The local-component cost is P4.20 billion.

The BRMP will serve to:
• Provide irrigation to some 14,900 hectares in Nueva Ecija and Bulacan;
• Generate electricity for the Luzon grid;
• Promote crop diversification and stabilize vegetable prices; and
• Generate income from caged fishery with the use of the reservoir water.

Invited to participate in the hearing on the P13.58-billion are farmers of San Miguel, San Ildefonso, both in Bulacan; the cities of Gapan and Cabanatuan, the towns of Sta Rosa, Peñaranda, and General Tinio, and other agriculture stakeholders in Nueva Ecija.

They got a briefing on the technical aspect of the project which will benefit farmers in the southern part of Nueva Ecija, a portion of Bulacan, and the town of Arayat in Pampanga.

It was learned that at least five barangays will be submerged in Peñaranda town, and the Balintingon area in General Tinio side.

The BRMP project is 140-meter-high rockfill impervious embankment dam. It has a reservoir with a storage capacity of 572 million cubic meters.

It has a power generating capacity of 30 megawatts and has a 395-meter-long power tunnel.