NAGA CITY - The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) is set to start work in May on a rubber dam project in Albay with a total project cost of P71.7 million, according to the Bicol regional manager.

        Alexander R. Reuyan, NIA regional manager, said the rubber dam project, funded through the Agrarian Reform Infrastructure Support Project (ARISP) II and the Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC), is expected to irrigate 160 hectares of new areas and rehabilitate 553 hectares of existing areas in the towns of Libon and Oas in Albay, along the Quinale River.

        The ARISP is the infrastructure support project to Agrarian Reform Communities (ARCs) of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) of which the Quinale ARC is the sixth biggest in the country.

        “The duration of the construction work is 10 months but the contractor will try its best to complete the rubber dam project before the end of December this year to coincide with the completion of the ARISP II program,” Reuyan said.

        He added that the project completion would benefit 20 villages and some 1,026 farmers in the two Albay towns.

        Reuyan said that the project design makes use of inflatable rubber dam to control the water at the same time that it prevents the flooding of farms and residential areas upstream during heavy rains or when typhoons come about.

        “With a width of 55 meters and a height of two meters, the rubber dam will automatically deflate when the Quinale River is flooded and inflate when the water flow returns to a normal level,” the manager explained.

        He revealed that the use of rubber is the newest technology in dam construction in the Philippines with the Quinale project the third to be constructed, so far. He added that the first one was constructed in Anggat dam and the second in Tarlac.

        Reuyan said that the winning contractor is Monolith Concrete Products and Construction, Inc. who made a bid of P66,100,020.60 for the construction, fabrication and installation of the diversion work and rubber dam. It clinched the bid from its rival bidder Northern Builders who made a bid of P68,283,215.07, he said.

        “All in all, the total cost of the project is P90,255,068 including the participation of the NIA and farmer-beneficiaries, contract amount, construction survey, general engineering, supervision and administration and management fees,” the NIA manager said.

        He said that the NIA has already done with the construction of the access road and 100-meter span protection dikes upstream of the dam site in partnership with the farmer-beneficiaries in the area.

        Reuyan said that they employed a so-called “force account work” in doing the preparatory construction in which the farmer-beneficiaries and the NIA agreed upon on certain amount from their labor as equity to the project.

        But he said that the farmer-beneficiaries who participated in the force account work received their full remuneration of their labor because Cong. Jose Maria Salceda of Albay, chairman of the Appropriation Committee, provided for their equity through funds from Congress.

        Reuyan also acknowledged the role of Salceda in sourcing the funds and approval of the project.