By Madelaine B. Miraflor

The agency tasked to develop and maintain the Philippines’ irrigation system, a critical factor in sustaining the production of the country’s main staples, has acquired new set of heavy equipment for the first time in 30 years.

In a statement, the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) said it recently acquired 17 units of heavy equipment worth P110.5 million for use in irrigation project implementation, as well as for the operation and maintenance of existing irrigation systems.

“The heavy equipment in sight are the first we received after almost 30 years. Ganoon katagal na walang bagong heavy equipment ang ating ahensiya [That’s how long our agency wasn’t able to purchase new equipment],” NIA Senior Deputy Administrator (SDA) Abraham B. Bagasin said.

The purchase of heavy equipment constitutes the agency’s three-year re-fleeting program of 40 wheeled excavators for Calendar Year (CY) 2017 to 2019. Of this list, 17 were bought in 2017, 18 for this year 2018, and five in 2019.

NIA maintained in operating condition 3,245 units of heavy, light/transport, other support, and special equipment in support to the operations and maintenance of irrigation systems nationwide.

Of these, the agency has a total of 383 existing heavy equipment, of which only 23 units are in good operating condition and 360 units are “very old, less reliable, and operating intermittently.”

“We still have a proposed budget of P149.5 million for 23 wheeled excavators in the next two years. I hope that this step would serve as an essential instrument towards the achievement of a new milestone for the agency,” Bagasin further said.