The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) has successfully installed a new Rubber Gate No. 5 at the Angat Afterbay Regulator Dam or most commonly known as Bustos Dam, a run of the river type of dam, located in Barangay Tibagan, Bustos, Bulacan on January 20, 2024.
Preceding the replacement of the new rubber gate, NIA OIC Deputy Administrator for Engineering and Operations Sector and concurrent NIA Region III Manager Engr. Josephine B. Salazar led the conduct of an inflation and leak testing to further guarantee the integrity of the newly-installed rubber gate.
ITP Construction, Inc. – Guangxi Hydroelectric Construction Bureau Co., Ltd. Consortium (Contractor) replaced the defective rubber gate without any cost to NIA. The five other rubber gates were further inspected to secure its structural integrity.
After the reported damage of the Rubber Gate No. 5 in 2020, the NIA immediately conducted series of actions with the Local Government Unit, Provincial Government of Bulacan, and its Irrigators Association (IA) to address challenges arising from the incident to make sure that irrigation is continuously available and the farming activities of the farmers of the Provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga are not hampered.
Bustos Dam (Angat Afterbay Regulator Dam) was built in 1926 as a concrete weir type and was improved in 1967 by installing steel sector gates increasing its elevation. In 1997, its rehabilitation started with replacing the steel gates to rubber gates through a grant from Japan making it the first rubber dam in the country. But due to old age, repairs and remedial measures were undertaken so that irrigation water supply will not be disrupted.
To ensure unhampered delivery of irrigation supply, continuous rehabilitation of the Bustos Dam is being done with the replacement of rubber gates in seven (7) pier measuring 79 meters each laid above a concrete ogee dam measuring at 76.9 meter each pier. The project serves 23,708 farmer-beneficiaries and irrigate 31,485 hectares of agricultural land covered by 16 municipalities of Bulacan and four (4) municipalities of Pampanga.
Guided by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.’s marching order for Food Security, the NIA headed by Acting Administrator Engr. Eduardo Eddie G. Guillen, ensures the safety and security of the people around its irrigation projects as an aid for flood mitigation and domestic water supply.