THE NATIONAL Irrigation Administration (NIA) has reported that damage to irrigation infrastructure has reached P109.49 million, owing to recent earthquakes.
In a statement, the NIA said that the damage caused by recent quakes, which rocked several areas in Mindanao, has affected about 5,495 farmers in Regions 13 (Caraga in northeastern Mindanao) and 8 (Eastern Visayas).
Based on its initial reports reaching NIA Administrator Eduardo G. Guillen, about 7,241 hectares of agricultural land has been adversely affected by damage to irrigation facilities.
For the Samar National Irrigation Project, the cost of damage has reached P46 million and affected 71 farmers across 271 hectares of agricultural land.
For Caraga, NIA said a total of 18 projects reported damage from the recent 7.8-magnitude earthquake, affecting 6,970 hectares and 5,353 farmer-beneficiaries.
“NIA is currently conducting an evaluation on how to effectively address the challenge of repairing the affected irrigation systems/projects to secure unhampered delivery of irrigation service to the farmers,” it added. — Adrian H. Halili