MASANTOL, Pampanga — Eight towns in Pampanga have been placed by their respective local government units under a state of calamity due to the scarcity of water brought about by the El Niño phenomenon.

Those that declared states of calamity include this southernmost town of the province and the towns of Apalit, Candaba, Macabebe, Minalin, San Luis, San Simon and Santo Tomas.

Officials of the said towns, all located in the southern part of the province or the fourth district, gathered in San Simon on Tuesday to discuss the measures to be taken to contain the effects of the drought which they said is threatening at least 14,000 hectares of rice crops in Pampanga.

The action by the local government officials led by Rep. Anna York Sagum came after the National Water and Resources Board (NWRB) canceled the release of irrigation water from the Angat-Maasim River Irrigation System (AMRIS) in Bulacan to farmlands in the two nearby provinces to cope with the scarcity of water in Metro Manila.

Sagum lamented that if they would not act now, at least 3,000 farmers in the district would be affected and “their families would starve which then could result to more serious problems.”

“We ought to help our farmers because they are still yet to recover from losses brought by the recent typhoons that hit the province,” the lawmaker said.

As this developed, the Region 3 Office of the Department of Agriculture (DA3) in the capital City of San Fernando said at least P21 billion worth of farm crops in Central Luzon are threatened by the dry spell, with some 3,498 farmers severely affected.

DA3 Regional Director Redentor Gatus said that this season’s harvest in Central Luzon might be lesser by 6.57 metric tons (MT) if the drought and scarcity of water would continue.

Gatus said the projection was assessed only from four provinces in the region, considered as the rice granary of Central Luzon. These are Zambales, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija and Tarlac.

“Data from Pampanga, Aurora and Bataan are still being collated,” Gatus said.

The report said that a total of 4, 412 hectares of farmlands in the four provinces are severely affected by El Niño.

To mitigate the effects of the dry spell, DA has already released specific measures and recommendations, including cloud seeding for both corn and rice areas; water management especially in dams under the control of the National Irrigation Administration; distribution of shallow tube wells for farmers; distribution of microbial fertilizers as well as organic fertilizers for corn farmers; and giving out of vegetable seeds for farmers against small water irrigation facilities.

Gatus said, however, that Central Luzon has enough rice supply for the region for the next months.
“Our people should not worry because we have already prepared ourselves should there be a scarcity in the supply of rice,” Gatus said. “Despite the possible effects, there is still no direct effect on the rice market, particularly on supply and prices.”

Earlier, the DA Regional Office in this city advised farmers in the region to prepare for the effects of El Niño for the coming months.

Gatus sent a letter to farmer groups and cooperatives in the seven provinces in Central Luzon advising them to start planting crops that could immediately be harvested. He said the DA issued the El Niño advisory to every town in the region so that farmers can prepare.

He added the DA will reactivate the municipal and provincial coordinating offices and intensify communication and information about the El Niño.

Gatus said that plants that can be harvested in shorter time such as mongo beans, some green leafy vegetables and other varieties of early maturing palay and corn that do not need plenty of water should be planted first instead of crops that require a lot of water.