State Dining Room, Malacañan Palace
August 23, 2023

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. discussed several matters regarding the proposed water management initiatives in Central Luzon with the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) during a meeting at the State Dining Room in Malacañan Palace.

The proposed water management initiatives, as pointed out by NIA, will cover flood mitigation and irrigation infrastructure projects in Region III that are projected to respond to future problems following the widespread devastation brought by the recent typhoons in the Region.

NIA Administrator Eduardo Eddie Guillen tackled various projects that can help address flooding and at the same time, strengthen irrigation of the agriculture sector in Central Luzon. These include the construction and rehabilitation of dams, Small Reservoir Irrigation Projects (SRIP), riverbank and flood protection works, improvement of irrigation drainage and installation of flood pumps.

According to him, the proposed projects can benefit the Region in terms of food security and economic development. The projects can help reduce the average inundation depth, irrigate a total service area of 36,000 hectares of land, assist more than 15,000 Filipino farmers and provide at least 10 million liters per day (MLD) of domestic water, among others.

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