The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) will advocate the adoption of the Solar-Powered Water Generation Technology for local government units in Mindanao to provide their constituents with drinking and irrigation water.
Following the successful establishment of the Municipal Economic Enterprise Development Office of Taraka, Lanao del Sur, MinDA will assist the LGUs in crafting the Cost Recovery Scheme so that investments made in solar-powered irrigation and solar-powered water systems could be recovered.
MinDA is pushing the Mindanao Water Supply Program (MinDAWater) as it aims to provide every community in Mindanao with safe potable water and irrigation water to improve agricultural production.
Here are the advantages of LGUs investing in SPIS or SPWS:
1. The Solar-Powered Water Generation System, while already widely used in other leading agricultural countries, is a new innovation which I introduced when I was Secretary of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to provide irrigation water to the farms and also for drinking. This was launched by President Rody Duterte in March 2017 and when I resigned in June 2019, at least 200 units were undergoing construction all over the country.
2. Each unit could irrigate up to 100 hectares, depending on the source of water and it saves farmers from the high cost of diesel fuel which they need for their water pumps. Using solar panels to power water drawing engines, the SPIS could source water from deep rivers, creeks, water impounding and even wells.
3. Since it relies on solar power, the SPIS is ideal for the dry season planting, including periods of drought when even the regular Irrigation Systems of NIA could not provide water. There is no interruption in the supply of water, unlike NIA which closes the irrigation systems when they maintain the dikes and the canals, because the water is distributed through plastic pipes.
4. SPIS is a lot cheaper compared to conventional water systems since the development cost per hectare is only about P120,000 compared to about P450,000 in the NIA systems. It could be constructed in less than six months and the coverage area is expandable by building a bigger reservoir and adding more pipes.
5. With SPIS, fertilization and even the application of herbicides could now be done by simply mixing the fertilizer or herbicides in the water kept in the reservoir thus adding to farm efficiency.
6. To fund the projects, MinDA is tapping its financial partner, the Development Bank of the Philippines, to extend low interest loans to LGUs.
MinDA pushes LGUs to fund their own SPIS and SPWS since they will be receiving a bigger share of the revenues collected by government starting next year under the Mandanas-Garcia Ruling of the Supreme Court.
Investments made in SPIS and SPWS could be recovered using the Taraka, Lanao del Sur Template which MinDA is willing to share with other LGUs to be replicated.
#KungGustoMaramingParaan!
#GovernanceIsCommonSense!
(Photos show the different SPIS units constructed during my stint as Agriculture Secretary and the Taraka SPIS established recently through the help of MinDA and DBP.)
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