NIA: Damage to irrigation facilities costs Php473.7M

NIA Central Office, Quezon City – As of the latest consolidated reports[1] on the damages to irrigation facilities caused by Typhoon Ruby, the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) reported a total of Php473,726,693.30 cost for the repair of damaged National Irrigation Systems (NIS) and Communal Irrigation Systems (CIS) in four regions including Regions 4A, 4B, 5, and 8. The agency also reported crop damages amounting to Php139,198,237.00[2] covering an area of 9,378[3] hectares.

Eastern Visayas, the region also devastated last year by Super Typhoon Yolanda, reported the highest damage cost in its irrigation facilities. The region, in which Ruby first made landfall, reported a cost of Php162,048,500.00 for damaged CIS facilities and Php61,030,000.00 for NIS for a total of Php223,078,500.00 for the repair of both NIS and CIS facilities. Region 8 also reported that 1,700 hectares of area was affected by the typhoon.

Bicol Region, on the other hand, reported the second highest damage cost amounting to  Php183,902,198.00 for the repair of damaged NIS (Php29,421,198.00) and CIS (Php154,481,000.00) structures.  The regional office also noted that affected area reached 6,178 hectares with crop damages amounting to Php107,357,237.00.

For CALABARZON, the total cost for repair of damaged irrigation facilities amounted to Php54,496,000.27 broken down to: Php22,306,000.27 for CIS and Php32,190,000.00 for NIS. The region also reported that crop damages amounted to Php31,841,000.00.

MIMAROPA, or Region 4B, reported the least cost for typhoon damages amounting to Php12,250,000.00 solely for damaged NIS facilities in Occidental Mindoro covering an area of 1,500 hectares affecting 950 farmers.

Typhoon Ruby is one of the strongest storm systems that entered the country this year. It intensified into a Category 5 typhoon on December 4 with a maximum sustained winds of 285 kph. It made its first landfall on Dolores, Eastern Samar on December 6 weakening as a Category 3 typhoon and continued to wane as it slowly traversed Visayas and Southern Luzon making landfalls on Cataingan, Masbate;  Torrijos, Marinduque; and finally on Laiya, Batangas on December 8 before it eventually exited the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR).