August 12, 2015, Dagupan City's e- SOC hosted Technical Conference attended by Senior Staff from  the National Irrigation Administration (NIA)  namely, Engrs Benjamin Parayno, AgapitoYamat, Eddie Paringit, Shirley Ducusin. They were joined by Ms. Emma Molina, (City Agriculture Office), Alfredo Dawana, ( FOODFACCI President), and Ramon Santillan, ( FOODFACCI Secretary) . The event was covered by  Ms Janice Hidalgo and Verno Loresco of TODAY's local newspaper. Prof. Nicanor O. Melecio, MBM, Project Director for ASEAN CHALLENGE 2015-2016 Engr. Al Penamante ( Supervising Consultant) , Ronnel A. DeVera( e-SOC Intern), jointly delivered a briefing on the impact of water releases from the ARISIP  Dam.

MAYOR BELEN FERNANDEZ , NIA REGIONAL MANAGER JONH CELESTE ORGANIZES DAGUPAN IRRIGATORS ASSOCIATION.

Dagupan City---This  August 12, 2015, Dagupan City's e- SOC Technical Conference attended by Senior Staff from  the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), representatives of Engr. Jonh Celeste (NIA Regional Manager)  namely, Engrs. Benjamin Parayno, AgapitoYamat, Eddie Paringit, Shirley Ducusin,  they were joined by Ms. Emma Molina, (City Agriculture Office), with observersAlfredo Dawana, ( FOODFACCI President), and Ramon Santillan, ( FOODFACCI Secretary) . The event was covered by  Ms Janice Hidalgo and VernoLoresco of TODAY's local newspaper. Upon their arrival, Engr. Al Penamante( Supervising Consultant) gave a  quick tour about e-SOC Programs and Facilities.

The following were discussed during the said  technical  conference, to wit; list of prospective membership of Dagupan NIA Irrigators Association  numbering more or less 40-60 members; schedule the 1st Organizational Meeting of NIA Dagupan Irrigators which was scheduled on August 14, 2015 , 2:00pm at e-SOC  Conference Room; registration of the association  with the Securities Exchange Commission(SEC) and accreditation by the NIA to be lawfully recognized recipient of benefits and packages provided by said entity. Under its program, the NIA Dagupan Irrigators Association could avail of the NIA's P25 Million Gravity Irrigation Canal Project and Twenty one (21) units of shallow tube wells which shall be given to farmers unable to avail of waters from the Canal Project.

The objective of the P25 Million Gravity Irrigation Project is to irrigate the agricultural fields of Dagupan City in order to help the farmers increase rice yield production and to control the excess waters coming from the release of waters in NIA's Main Irrigation Canal. This pro-activeapproach in finding solutions to the formidable problem on flooding upon instruction of Mayor Belen T. Fernandez was spearheaded by Prof. Nicanor O. Melecio, Project Director for ASEAN CHALLENGE2015-2016, official liaison for the City of Dagupan and Province of Pangasinan for DPWH Flood Control Projects. He is a veteran flood tracker during Typhoon ( Marce) 2004,  Pepeng ( 2009) and recently this July flooding.

The releases from ARISIP dam covering the period July 3 to July 19, 2015 which Dagupan e-SOC Flood Trackers have tracked appear to have "stacked" irrigation water on top of the rain water that fell on Dagupan City. During the period July 3 to 19, 2015,  Engr. Paringit had emphasized that the water requirements of land soaking in San Manuel is very high even during the onset of the heavy rainfall as registered in Dagupan City . According to him, San Manuel registered a light rainfall and was therefore insufficient to soak the area.Consequently it needs a high volume of irrigation from the Main Canal. Due to the poor conditions of the lateral canals, only 60% of the irrigation water is absorbed while 40% find their way to the Sinocalan River.

 Other cited reasons for San Manuel's high requirement of water for land soaking are; 1. San Manuel soil is sandy;and  2.land elevation is high. Hence, in order to mitigate these problems, Engr. Paringit and Yamat recommended the improvement of canal facilities to reducethe 40% of excess water which causes flooding.  Prof. Melecio urged them to prepare the necessary Program of Work for their proposed of improvement for immediate inclusion in the NIA Regional Budget for 2016 in time for deliberation of the GAAin Congress this October before it’s too late.

There is also a need to conduct a technical conference or hydrological study on water balance such as percolation, evaporation, rainfall, or saturation requirements to contain this 40% excess water of land soaking requirements of the San Manuel area. The excess water flows and traverses Asingan ,Binalonan, Urdaneta, Sta.Barbara, Calasiao downward to Dagupan City.  It must be noted that the cropping plan prepared by NIA is a requirement of San Roque Dam for its allocation of water volume to the re-regulating pond. The schedule of irrigation waters needed by farmers in accordance with the cropping pattern determinesthe amount of water released through NIA’s Main Canal. However, these are adjusted during heavy rainfall to reduce the tax paid by NIA to the National Water Resources Board whenever it releases waters to accredited NIA Irrigators Association. (Ronnel A. DeVera)