ILOILO City – The P20.7-billion Panay River Basin Integrated Development Project (PRB-IDP) in Tapaz, Capiz, is moving closer to construction.
The Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev) – Western Visayas confirmed that its detailed engineering design (DED) has reached 80 percent completion.
DEPDev regional director Engr. Arecio Casing Jr. said the project, led by the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), remains on schedule for full DED completion by early 2026.
“The PRB-IDP is still in detailed engineering design. This time, the project proponent is the National Irrigation Authority, which is in charge of its completion. Now it is at 80 percent, and we hope the target schedule early next year will be achieved,” Casing said.
He added that while NIA contracted out some technical components such as boring and sampling, the main analytical and planning work remains within the agency.
“I think it is NIA’s internal. So it is people from NIA who know about it,” Casing added, declining to name the consultants involved.
Initially approved in 2018, the massive P20.786-billion undertaking is envisioned to transform Western Visayas’ agricultural and energy landscape. Once completed, the project will irrigate 26,800 hectares of farmland and directly benefit around 25,046 farmers across 16 municipalities in Capiz and Iloilo, including Roxas City, Dumarao, Jamindan, Mambusao, Sigma, Tapaz, and Bingawan.
Beyond irrigation, the PRB-IDP is designed to generate 18.42 megawatts of renewable hydroelectric power, supply three cubic meters per second of bulk water to Roxas City and adjacent towns, and mitigate flooding in the Panay River sub-basins.
Anchored on the government’s updated Food Staples-Sufficiency Roadmap, the project’s design features a 102-meter-high main dam with a 267.77-million-cubic-meter reservoir, an afterbay dam, over 150 kilometers of highline canals, and 320 kilometers of service roads.
It will also include bulk water drop-off points and a penstock for hydropower generation.
Casing said inflationary pressures could push the project’s cost beyond its original estimate, possibly exceeding the P19.698-billion Jalaur River Multi-Purpose Project Stage II in Iloilo. To fast-track implementation, NIA is pursuing a “design-and-build” scheme that will consolidate both the final engineering design and construction under a single contract./PN
