MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos on Thursday inaugurated the P1.1 billion irrigation project, a key infrastructure development expected to increase agricultural productivity in Leyte province.
The Hibulangan Small Reservoir Irrigation Project (HSRIP), considered one of the region’s largest irrigation facilities, is designed to provide a reliable water supply to 1,821 farmers covering 2,750 hectares of agricultural land in the towns of Villaba, Matag-ob, and Kananga.
"This is an example of a large-scale project across the Philippines. From having only one harvest per year, I was surprised to find out that they only planted once here, now there will be two, and if we manage the water properly, it might even reach three," Marcos said in his remarks.
The irrigation facility was launched initially during the administration of former president Benigno Aquino III in 2013 and has now become fully operational.
Implemented by the National Irrigation Administration, the dam has a reservoir capacity of 9.01 million cubic meters and is expected to address the perennial challenge of water scarcity during the dry season.
The project was first proposed in 2009 as a climate mitigation measure aimed at supporting farmers who rely heavily on rainfall and are vulnerable to prolonged dry spells.
