Provincial government of Davao Oriental prohibited quarrying operations in a river that serves as the main water source of Cateel’s Aragon Dam which is considered the biggest irrigation system in Mindanao.
The measure is to prevent said irrigation system from being destroyed while safeguarding surrounding villages from being exposed to danger at the same time.
Quoted in an article by BusinessWorld is Davao Oriental’s Provincial Engineering Office Engr. John Christopher Algallar saying that “quarrying downstream will likely cause the failure of the dam, especially when there is an uncontrolled rising of water levels.”
Algallar stressed in the same article the importance of strictly monitoring the area with combined efforts of the public and local government units even though there are no reported illegal quarrying activities along the river.
The P 218-million irrigation dam inaugurated in 2014 was accomplished through the World Bank’s Mindanao Rural Development Project (WB-MRDP) which provided the provincial government a financial breather.
WB-MRDP took most of the financing while the 80 percent of the 50 percent equity the program required from the local government unit was shouldered Department of Agriculture (DOA).
The Aragon Dam is vital to the town of Cateel as it supplies water for the irrigation of many rice farms around 11 villages in the town that is considered to be an emerging rice producer in the province.
