ILOILO CITY – The Iloilo Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) has assured an adequate supply of quarry materials for the construction of the Jalaur River Multipurpose Project (JRMP) II in Calinog, Iloilo.
Lawyer Arturo C. Cangrejo, officer-in-charge of PENRO, said the quarry materials will not only be sourced from Calinog town alone, but also from outlying areas like Dueñas and Lambunao towns.
Cangrejo estimated that the JRMP II will need one million cubic meters of sand and gravel towards its completion.
“We have sufficient supply of materials because the one million cubic meters is not a one-time need,” he said in a phone interview on Sunday.
Cangrejo said they have received enough applications on quarry permits to be approved by the National Irrigation Administration (NIA).
He noted that time element, however, remains a challenge because the office needs to process the permits to immediately meet the needs of mega-dam construction.
There were also locals in some villages in Calinog who disagreed with the quarrying activities but the local government unit was able to encourage them that the quarry materials from their areas were “necessary and essential” to the JRMP.
Cangrejo further said the office had secured a list of villages where quarry materials would be extracted.
“Studies had been done to identify areas with sufficient quarry materials, along with the landowners and the owners of adjacent lands where quarrying will be done. The volume and the quality of materials available in an area were also identified,” he said.
There were two quarry permitees that operate in Calinog in 2018, Cangrejo added.
Once completed, the JRMP II will be the largest dam outside Luzon. It covers the construction of 109-meter Jalaur High Dam, 38.5-meter Afterbay Dam, 10-meter Alibutan Catch Dam, 80.74-kilometer Highline Canal, and its appurtenant structures.
Engr. Jonel Borres, NIA-6 Division Manager for Engineering, in previous interviews, said the project was expected to be completed in the last quarter of 2021.
