TABUK CITY, KALINGA – The construction boom in China preceding the Beijing Olympics last year had affected the life of this city.
According to Engr. John Socalo, superintendent of the Chico River Irrigation System (CRIS) of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), the demand for steel materials occasioned by the construction boom in the neighboring country caused the price of steel scrap in this city to skyrocket from P2.00 to more than P10.00 per kilo.
He said that with the price in Isabela where scrap from Kalinga find their way at as high as P18.00 per kilo, the CRIS was soon stripped of most of its exposed steel parts.
Socalo mentioned the guard rails of the siphon and wasteway in barangay Calanan and the lifting mechanism of the head gate of Tabuk Supply Canal No. 1 in Bulanao as among those sawed off and spirited away by pilferers during the night.
He related that the thieves were armed. Some people in barangay Bulo informed that when they noticed some movements in a control gate there during the night and attempted to investigate, they heard gunshots. They found out the following day that the trolley of the gate was gone.
With the pilferage of the steel parts, controlling the flow of the water in the CRIS during emergencies now takes more time and energy.
Socalo said that while before, the operation of the gate of Tabuk Supply Canal No. 1 only needed two persons, now it takes five persons to shut the gate and a crane to open it.
With the condition of the gate now, if there are emergencies along the canal which passes through the population center of Bulanao and where most drowning cases in the CRIS take place, the NIA has to shut the main gate of the system at the diversion dam which is around five kilometers away.
“With the volume of water accumulated in the canal, it will take hours before the water in Tabuk Supply Canal No. 1 subsides. Had the lifting mechanism not been stolen, it would take less than an hour for the water in the canal to subside,” Socalo said.
He continued that had not the gate been ruined, it is possible that the two children who drowned along the Tabuk Supply Canal No. 1 last year may have been saved.
Socalo blames the unregulated business on steel materials being carried out by junk shops and ambulant junk buyers as the culprit for the lose of the steel parts of the CRIS “because if there are no buyers, there would be no thieves.”
Socalo called on the junk buyers to see to it that they only buy junk and not usable materials.
“We should protect the irrigation system because it is for us all. Who knows if the next drowning victim is your child?” Socalo said.
Socalo said that the replacement of the stolen parts is programmed but they are worried that when replaced, the parts might be stolen again.
“The very sad part is that the lost lifting mechanism is only 100 kilos and could have been sold to the junk buyer at P500.00 but it causes P80,000.00 to have one manufactured,” Socalo said. **By Estanislao Albano Jr., ZZW
According to Engr. John Socalo, superintendent of the Chico River Irrigation System (CRIS) of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), the demand for steel materials occasioned by the construction boom in the neighboring country caused the price of steel scrap in this city to skyrocket from P2.00 to more than P10.00 per kilo.
He said that with the price in Isabela where scrap from Kalinga find their way at as high as P18.00 per kilo, the CRIS was soon stripped of most of its exposed steel parts.
Socalo mentioned the guard rails of the siphon and wasteway in barangay Calanan and the lifting mechanism of the head gate of Tabuk Supply Canal No. 1 in Bulanao as among those sawed off and spirited away by pilferers during the night.
He related that the thieves were armed. Some people in barangay Bulo informed that when they noticed some movements in a control gate there during the night and attempted to investigate, they heard gunshots. They found out the following day that the trolley of the gate was gone.
With the pilferage of the steel parts, controlling the flow of the water in the CRIS during emergencies now takes more time and energy.
Socalo said that while before, the operation of the gate of Tabuk Supply Canal No. 1 only needed two persons, now it takes five persons to shut the gate and a crane to open it.
With the condition of the gate now, if there are emergencies along the canal which passes through the population center of Bulanao and where most drowning cases in the CRIS take place, the NIA has to shut the main gate of the system at the diversion dam which is around five kilometers away.
“With the volume of water accumulated in the canal, it will take hours before the water in Tabuk Supply Canal No. 1 subsides. Had the lifting mechanism not been stolen, it would take less than an hour for the water in the canal to subside,” Socalo said.
He continued that had not the gate been ruined, it is possible that the two children who drowned along the Tabuk Supply Canal No. 1 last year may have been saved.
Socalo blames the unregulated business on steel materials being carried out by junk shops and ambulant junk buyers as the culprit for the lose of the steel parts of the CRIS “because if there are no buyers, there would be no thieves.”
Socalo called on the junk buyers to see to it that they only buy junk and not usable materials.
“We should protect the irrigation system because it is for us all. Who knows if the next drowning victim is your child?” Socalo said.
Socalo said that the replacement of the stolen parts is programmed but they are worried that when replaced, the parts might be stolen again.
“The very sad part is that the lost lifting mechanism is only 100 kilos and could have been sold to the junk buyer at P500.00 but it causes P80,000.00 to have one manufactured,” Socalo said. **By Estanislao Albano Jr., ZZW
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