NIA to push through with Dato dam

NAGA CITY (Sep 3, 2011) - Officials of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) announced to the media its resolve to push through with a controversial dam construction in Lupi Camarines Sur and presented some changes to design and implementation that aims to make the multi-million peso project more acceptable to most stakeholders.

NIA Deputy Administrator for Engineering Democratico Gana and NIA Regional Director William Ragodon led the presentors in a press conference held Thursday at Villa Caceres Hotel.

A major design change presented is the revision of the height of the dam to 8 meters. The total project cost is also being scaled down to P1.4 billion, according to Gana. The socail acceptability of the project will also be given weight, he said adding that exhaustive public consultation shall be conducted.

As originally proposed, the dam was to measure 11 meters high and 150 meters wide and would have been contructed at Barangay Malaguico in Lupi Camarines Sur during the term of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo at a cost of P1.9 billion.

Tauted as the flag-ship project for his district of then presidential son and congressman Dato Arroyo, it run into stiff opposition from environmental groups, the academe, the Catholic Church and residents around the proposed project site.

Opponents coined the monicker Dato dam when referring to the project that rapidly became unpopular prompting the Regional Development Council who initially endorsed the project to NEDA (With report from Noriel Oya)