Introduction
Water is an essential factor in development: in households, agriculture production, industry and services. Thus, its quantity and quality have to be managed to ensure a good life support system in the long-term. The proper distribution and management of water in agricultural lands is important for intensifying agricultural productivity.
Irrigated agriculture provides a major contribution to food production and food security in the region. The only crop grown in irrigated lands is paddy rice through surface type of irrigation. This mode of irrigation is only adaptable to rice which tolerates water logging because these irrigated lands are located in areas with a slope ranging from 0-3 percent.
Drainage is important for sustainable agriculture. There should be no irrigation without drainage to avoid negative impacts on agricultural production and soil. The following are the functions of a good drainage system: (1) it protects the resource base for food production; (2) it sustains and increases yields and rural incomes; (3) it protects irrigation investment; (4) drainage infrastructure serves rural and urban residents as well as industry; (5) it protects human lives and assets against flooding and high groundwater levels; and (6) drainage services improve health conditions
(http://www.water-2001.de/supporting/Forgotten_Factor_Drainage.pdf).
Reducing flood risk minimizes the impacts of floods on human safety, health, and welfare. The country’s climate is influenced by large-scale atmospheric phenomena that bring in substantial amounts of rain almost year-round. However, due to the uneven distribution of rain with respect to time and space and the occurrence of extreme events such as floods and droughts, the country’s water resources have in the past experienced imbalances in supply and demand.
Global
warming is expected to occur due to increased carbon dioxide
concentration in the atmosphere. Global surface temperature will
increase by at least 2°C by the next century. Significant changes in the
earth’s climatic system, particularly an alteration of rainfall and
temperature in both time and space, are expected.
(http://www.int-res.com/articles/cr/12/
c012p077.pdf).
Situational Analysis
Irrigation.
Of the targeted 1,414 hectares new irrigated areas, only 291 hectares have been developed. The development of potentially irrigable areas in the region remains low at only 49.64 percent of the total irrigable areas of 239,660 hectares at full development. It is aggravated by calamities that hit the region causing heavy damages to the physical facilities, inundation of farmlands and deposition of sediments in the diversion dams and irrigation canals.
The irrigation program for the period under review re-focused on the restoration and rehabilitation of existing irrigation systems and institutional strengthening particularly on the organization and development of Irrigator’s Associations (IAs). Of the targeted 19,861 hectares, 13,304 hectare have been restored or rehabilitated.
Despite the slow development of the potentially irrigable areas, average palay yield increased from 3.14 MT/ha. to 3.49 MT/ha. Average cropping intensity of the National Irrigation Systems and Communal Irrigation Systems is 138.24 percent and 123 percent, respectively.
Flood Control. During the last quarter of 2006, the series of typhoons (Milenyo, Reming and Seniang) recorded a total damage of P7.8 billion. The intense and long duration of rainfall during typhoon Reming caused the most flood and debris flow damage.
Intermittent sections of river training works and drainage structures were constructed solving only the problem locally . Palliative measures such as dredging of rivers are also common but these are not effective and efficient because dredged materials are just dumped along riverbanks. Engineering solutions continue to be implemented in the region.
Development Challenges
Irrigation. The slow-paced development of irrigation in Bicol may be due to a host of interrelated financial, technical, hydrologic, socio-economic and institutional issues. Delays in project implementation and cost overruns, dilapidated physical facilities, waste of scarce water and institutional constraints have been among the major setbacks.
Because of the high cost of new irrigation development for food production, a paradigm shift from extensive agriculture to intensification and increased output is evident.
Flood Control . The intense rainfall resulting to frequent flooding, soil erosion and debris and mudslides also resulted to heavy siltation and deposition of sediments in rivers and farmlands. In effect, the flood storage capacities of rivers and lakes are slowly being lost, and the water retention capacities of the upper watershed areas are slowly losing ground. Urbanization also contributed to flooding due to increase in runoff from the lack of infiltration resulting from paved ground surfaces as well as settlements along riverbanks. Urban drainage canals can no longer accommodate the increasing runoff. Flood embankments are no longer effective because these structures are easily over-topped and damaged.
Despite these negative impacts, the engineering solutions are still favored by the stakeholders and they tend to be overconfident because the solutions appear to offer substantial protection and economic development benefits. Unknown to them however, the residual risk remains and increases over time as the existence of flood protection works induces further development. The failure of these structures can be attributed to the following reasons:
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Intermittent damages were not repaired or rehabilitated on time, weakening the structural integrity of the flood protection works.
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The standards on the design storm are already outdated and are unable to cope with the changing environmental conditions (i.e., frequency and duration of storms and land use changes).
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Construction methods used were unsuitable in the area.
The limited number of flood control and drainage structures and untimely repair of damage structures is primarily attributed to its being highly capital-intensive that may result to the design of structures of very low return periods. There is also an urgent need to re-visit the design standards on flood control structures including bridges to suit the changing hydro-meteorological conditions.
Objectives
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To increase the productivity of agricultural lands through sustained irrigation development.
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To minimize losses brought about by water-related hazards.
Strategies
Irrigation
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Improve the existing coverage areas through restoration, repair and rehabilitation and subsequent operation and maintenance;
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Promote integrated water resources management to optimize the use of water and investments on water-related infrastructures;
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Promote price-setting of irrigation service fee to balance cost recovery and operation and maintenance, such as volumetric water pricing. Volumetric water pricing will also address water scarcity at the tail water end;
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Strengthen and empower the Irrigators Associations (IAs) by implementing Joint System Management (JSM) so that the institutional demands are matched with local institutional capacity, and that stakeholders are genuinely committed through participation and local ownership; and
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Improve probability of funding proposals for communal irrigation from national government through project packaging.
Flood Control
To promote integrated water resources management (IWRM) principles through the adoption of the philosophy of integrated flood management (IFM) in a basin, rather than fragmented and flood control alone.
IFM aims to maximize the use of the flood plains and minimize the losses, hence occasional losses are accepted in favor of a more efficient use of the flood plain in the long term. These can be achieved by complementing structural measures with compatible non-structural approaches that are both physical and institutional.
The specific strategies are as follows:
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Strengthen hydro-meteorological forecasting;
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Establish modern flood forecasting and warning systems;
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Strictly implement land use control in areas exposed to hazards.
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Enhance disaster risk management measures;
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Construct/strengthen appropriate structures in areas that are already intensely used; and
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Review the policies on national standards in the design of the structures to suit local conditions.
Major Programs and Projects
Irrigation.
The physical target for the remaining plan period is to restore 20,060 hectares and 1,183 hectares new irrigated areas. The programs and projects include:
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Operation and maintenance of National and Communal Irrigation Systems
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Institutional development programs through organization and development of farmer-beneficiaries.
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Repair and rehabilitation of existing National Irrigation Systems
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Repair and rehabilitation of existing Communal Irrigation Systems
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Irrigation and drainage projects under the Calamity Assistance and Rehabilitation Efforts (CARE);
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Balikatan Sagip sa Patubig Program (BSPP)
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Repair/Establishment of Groundwater Pump Project
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Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program-Irrigation Component (CARP-IC)
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Agrarian Reform Infrastructure Support Project II (ARISP II)
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Bicol River Basin and Watershed Management Project-Irrigation Component under the Participatory Irrigation Development Program
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Busigon River Irrigation Project (Province to submit the proposal to the RDC for review and recommendation to NIA)
Flood Control
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Flood Control projects under the Calamity Assistance and Rehabilitation Efforts (CARE)
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Bicol River Basin and Watershed Management Project (Flood Mitigation Component)
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Study on the Comprehensive Disaster Prevention around Mayon Volcano
