Name of Client:
National Irrigation Administration (NIA)
Country:
Philippines
Length of Consultancy Assignment:
Start Date: August 2000
Completion Date: December 2009
Detailed Narrative Description of Project:
The Project aimed at increasing the incomes of about 10,000 farm households and reducing the incidence of poverty in selected rural areas through increased agricultural production and crop diversification brought about by investments in irrigation infrastructure and increased user participation in project development or improvement and subsequent system management. The Project included four mutually supportive components, based on extensive consultations with beneficiaries and other stakeholders, namely: (i) Participation and Transfer, which involved the development, field-testing, documentation, and implementation of a process to involve users in decision-making, organize irrigators’ associations (IAs), build their capacity for sustained operation and maintenance (O&M), and transfer irrigation systems to self-reliant IAs to improve performance and realize their production potential; (ii) Physical Infrastructure, involving the rehabilitation, improvement, and construction of communal irrigation systems, national irrigation systems, small reservoirs, and farm-to-market roads; (iii) Environmental and Social Measures, including reforestation and management of degraded watersheds, resettlement of populations displaced by reservoir impoundment, control of schistosomiasis, and implementation of an indigenous peoples development plan; and (iv) Project Management Support, including consulting services and equipment procurement. Being a sector project, ongoing policy dialogue was an integral activity of SPISP, focusing on reinforcing existing government policy for reducing rural poverty through investments in irrigation infrastructure and human resource development involving user participation in project development and system management.
The Project was implemented by NIA, as the Executing Agency (EA), in close coordination and collaboration with concerned local government units (LGUs) and other national government agencies such as the Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and Department of Health (DOH).
PRIMEX provided specialist technical services to support NIA and the concerned regional offices during the implementation of the project. These specialists included a Hydraulic Structure Engineer, a Rural Sociologist, an Agriculturist, a Fisheries Specialist, and an Agricultural Economist. Their specific areas of assistance included the following: (i) conduct of technical and engineering surveys and site investigations and preparation of detailed engineering designs and cost estimates for storage dams and appurtenant structures; (ii) community development planning with focus on irrigators’ associations (IAs), women’s groups, resettlement, and indigenous peoples (IP); (iii) assessment of water resources for irrigation and other requirements, and conduct of water utilization and reservoir operation studies; (iv) planning and preparation of feasibility grade layouts, plans and designs of all structures and facilities, and determination of subproject costs; and (v) assessment of the economic viability of identified subprojects.