Angat water not enough, Pampanga needs rains to irrigate farms

Angat Dam will still require strong rains to be able to irrigate 2,000 hectares of Pampanga rice fields being tended by farmers who took the risk of planting early this month despite the onset of El Niño, according to the Bulacan office of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) on Tuesday, July 21, 2026. INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

BUSTOS, Bulacan— Angat Dam will still require strong rains to be able to irrigate 2,000 hectares of Pampanga rice fields being tended by farmers who took the risk of planting early this month despite the onset of El Niño, according to the Bulacan office of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) on Tuesday.

Enrique Carlos, who heads NIA’s Irrigation Management Office (IMO) in Bulacan, said these farms need water to sustain their growing crops until the October harvest time.

But Angat has been heavily depleted and is unable to release water to Bustos Dam, which supplies the Angat Maasim River Irrigation System (AMRIS) consisting of 27,000 hectares of rice farms of more than 22,000 farmers in 17 towns in Bulacan and the towns of Apalit, Candaba, San Simon and San Luis in Pampanga.

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