NIA Kalinga opens irrigation system after desilting, clearing operations

Tabuk City, Kalinga – Following a two-month-long desilting and clearing operations in the Upper Chico River Irrigation System, the irrigation system’s intake gates were finally opened Monday, July 1, 2024.

The opening of said gates manifests the readiness of the irrigation system to deliver water within the service area of the largest irrigation system in the Cordillera region.

The opening is poised to benefit 15,447 hectares of rice fields in Tabuk City and Pinukpuk in Kalinga and Quezon and Mallig in Isabela.

This month serves as the start of the wet crop season which shall conclude this November, thus the decision to open the intake gates.

While it is already opened, the NIA Kalinga Irrigation Management Office will still continue its desilting operations to ensure the effective flow of water.

To recall, after receiving two backhoes from the national government through the National Irrigation Administration's (NIA) Equipment Refleeting Program, the office started its desilting operation beginning in the main canal in Bulo, Tabuk City, Kalinga in January this year.

The operation continued since then. Farmer-irrigators who became recipients of the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers) program of the DOLE also aided canal clearing and maintenance work along the irrigation system.

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