PILAR town Mayor Engr. Wilson Pajo expressed concern over the situation besetting the farmers here, who are in dire need for more water so land preparations in time for cropping season. He told this writer exclusively that he wanted the cloud seeding operation be continued.
He said it must be done so that the Malinao dam irrigation system located here will be filled with rain water despite the rainy days are here.
Mayor Pajo was attending the Local Chief Executives Consultation dialogue held at Bohol Tropics last week on July 5, 2024 courtesy of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
The lack of rain to supply the irrigation dams has prompted Bayongan-Capayas Dam Federation of Irrigators Association (Bay-CAPA FIA), Federation of Talibon SRIS Irrigators Association (FETASIA) and Malinao Dam Federation of Irrigators Association (MADFIA, Inc) to request the provincial government to continue cloud seeding operations “due to moderate rainfall since the start of cropping season.”
For insufficiency of rain in the irrigation dam systems in past months due to the dry spell, only 4,523 hectares have been irrigated out of the total 17,515 hectares of target area, Provincial Board Member Lucille Lagunay bared this in her privilege speech of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan’s plenary.
Citing figures provided to her by National Irrigation Administration (NIA) thru Engr. Maria Donesa Autida, Lagunay said that Malinao dam had only provided water to 1,975 or 48% out of 4,150 hectares as target area to be irrigated as of June 26.
Bayongan dam in San Miguel irrigated only 1,030 (30% out of 3,400 hectares; Capayas dam in Ubay town, 70 (8%) out of 923 hectares; Talibon small reservoir impounding project (SRIP), 152.28 (18%) of 854.47 hectares; and Benliw dam in Ubay, 65 (29% of the 223 hectares.
Communal irrigation systems (CIS, smaller than big irrigation systems) in municipalities irrigated only 18% or 1,230 of the 6,951 hectares combined.
Earlier, the provincial government requested P7.5 million fund DA-BSWM Region VII, but only P5,017,280 granted under the General Appropriations Act of 2024, Binlod said.
Earlier on, an initial fund of P2.5 million from Bohol Provincial Disaster Risk and Reduction Management Office (PDRRMO) was allotted but was not used.
Department of Agriculture said that on last week of June 2024, cloud seeding operations were conducted using 250 kg of salt. Cloud seeding is a process where salt is dispersed into seedable or suitable clouds to encourage faster development and increase rainfall.
It said that the flight for cloud seeding operations took off at 10:03 in the morning and landed at 11:14 a.m. The seeding time was recorded at 10:22 to 10:52 a.m.
The seeded skies for 30 minutes are along the towns of Carmen, San Miguel, Ubay, Alicia, Sierra, Pilar. (rvo)
