362 Cathedral of the Resurrection Church Compound, Lower Magsaysay Avenue, 2600 Baguio City,Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines,Telefax: (074) 424-3764 Email: cdpckordi@cdpckordilyera.org; cdpc.envi@gmail.com; Web: cdpckordilyera.org
4 July 2019
Enhance traditional communal irrigation, no to CRPIP
The Center for Development Programs in the Cordillera (CDPC) calls on the government to channel its resources and efforts towards rehabilitating and enhancing the age-old, traditional communal irrigation systems in the Cordillera as opposed to the onerous Chico River Pump Irrigation Project (CRPIP) that is also riddled with violations of the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of affected Kalinga tribes by the National Irrigation Authority-Region II. We support the demand of Cordillera rice terraces farmers for the enhancement of their age-old traditional communal irrigation systems and the protection of their rights over their water resources.
CDPC supports the call to terminate of the Chico River Pump Irrigation Project as it undermines equity and social justice in water resource use and development. Equity means providing irrigation not at the expense of the Philippine patrimony and Filipino people paying an onerous loan. Equity means addressing irrigation needs of both upland and lowland farmers—in the case of the CRPIP, the farmers of Kalinga and Cagayan (Tuao and Piat municipalities), respectively. Equity means providing irrigation to lowland farmers not be at the expense of upland farmers or marginal farmers along the Chico River.
Inadequate and inefficient irrigation systems are among the major constraints in achieving food security in the Philippines, particularly rice sufficiency. This is attributed to the insufficiency of government’s policy and development program on irrigation and rice industry development in general. The age-old communal irrigation systems in the Cordillera, governed by values of collective labor and coooperation and the intrinsic relation of indigenous poeples to the land, meanwhile provide insight on the viability of traditional knowledge in ensuring equity in access to resources, food security, particularly rice security and regulated use and management of water resources.
The age-old communal irrigation systems remain among the bedrock of communal life among Cordillera indigenous peoples. Users of irrigation water are co-owners and therefore co-stewards of each and every communal irrigation system. It is this communal irrigation system that binds all the private owners of receiver rice paddies to collectively utilize, steward and develop such, contributing to the sustenance of collective identity. In this era where privatization is well-entrenched even among indigenous peoples, communal irrigation system persists as an amalgamating factor in the persistence of communal ethos. The value placed on the communal irrigation system is thus not limited to economic worth.
While the major river systems of the Cordillera are being ‘developed’ purportedly for energy and irrigation as in the case of the CRPIP, little attention, if at all, is being paid in the rehabilitation and development of the age-old communal irrigation systems. On our part, CDPC sustained its community services of improving communal irrigation systems by introducing the high-density polyethylene pressure pipe. This technology saves water from seepage in the case of earthen irrigation canals and will not induce soil erosion. We therefore reiterate the pressing need to urgently develop and implement a water resource and irrigation policy and program guided by the principles of equity and social justice. #
Reference:
Rhoda Dalang, Executive Director