NIA looking to raise P800 billion from dam PPPs

The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) is looking to raise as much as P800 billion from public-private partnerships involving the construction of dams across the country.

According to NIA Administrator Benny Antiporda, the agency plans to establish several dams across the country to address irrigation concerns and ensure sufficient water supply during the dry seasons.

“Ang problema (the problem) is very simple. Kapag may tubig, kailangan ng lalagyan (when there is water, it needs storage),” he said during a public briefing on Tuesday.

“As of now ang direksyon ng inyong NIA (the direction of NIA) is to come up with more dams in the country for us to be sure that there will be a source of water if in case we need it ‘pag dating ng tag-araw (come the summer),” he added.

NIA is mandated to plan, construct, operate, and maintain irrigation systems in line with integrated water resource management principles, in a bid to boost agricultural productivity and increase farmers’ income.

In terms of funding, Antiporda said the agency is looking to partner with the private sector and incorporate other renewable energy sources in the planned dams.

“Magre-raise tayo ng P800 billion para po dito, coming from projects of PPP. Ang PPP po maari silang kumita,” he said.

(We will raise P800 billion for this, coming from PPP projects. PPPs can be profitable.)

He specifically mentioned dams that also act as hydroelectric power plants and those that incorporate solar panels and aquaculture, which the agency is already studying.

Antiporda said there were some 1 million hectares across the country that needed to be irrigated, down from the 1.1 million hectares recorded in the previous map.

“One thing that I can assure everybody, ang inyong buwis ay ibabalik sa inyo. Serbisyo ang ibibigay namin (your taxes will be returned to you. We will provide you with services),” he said.

In the same briefing, Antiporda said irrigation repairs in the Ilocos and Cordillera regions were nearing completion following the magnitude 7 earthquake that hit the area last month.

“We [have] only given them 45 days to finish. But again, very optimistic tayo na earlier than that matatapos ‘yung project. But the good news is diretso po ‘yung delivery ng tubig natin sa mga magsasaka,” he said.

(We have only given them 45 days to finish. But again, we are very optimistic that they will finish the project earlier than that. The good news is the delivery of water to farmers continues.) — DVM, GMA News