The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) has started two weeks ago the feasibility study and detailed engineering (FSDE) and pre-engineering works on the Bohol Northeast Basin Multi-purpose Dam Project (NBMDP) in Danao town.

Rep. Erico Aristotle Aumentado said National Irrigation Administration (NIA) chief Florencio Padernal informed him of the development through a phone call.

Aumentado said Padernal earlier told him that NIA has allocated in its 2016 budget P12.11 million for the basin study.

Padernal, he added, said the study will be completed in two to three years. Preparations for the civil works will then follow.

The dam will provide irrigation water to 19,000 hectares more of ricelands including those of poor farmers totally dependent on rain. Irrigation will ensure cultivation of the fields – boosting farmers’ income – even during the dry season or even extended dry spells like during the El Niño phenomenon.

Beneficiaries will be farmers of host Danao, and the towns of Bien Unido, Trinidad, San Miguel and Ubay.

The basin is among the “dream” projects of Aumentado’s namesake father and immediate congressional predecessor, Erico Boyles Aumentado.

The elder Aumentado had envisioned a five-in-one project. He proposed to NIA to have, aside from the irrigation dam, a hydroelectric plant, a treatment plant for the water to become potable for distribution especially to poor communities in the mountain barangays around the dam, a flood control project where diversion canals are built as exit for excess water to the sea, and a tourism park where regulated water sports may be allowed. (By June S. Blanco)