By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

WHILE the House Committee on Natural Resources is still looking for funding to activate the 100,000-gallon water reservoir for Kagman commercial farm plots, the Department of Lands Natural Resources has made available $7,000 for the repair of two water pumps to ease the burden of farmers complaining about an insufficient water supply.
Agriculture consultant Isidoro T. Cabrera said he met with DLNR officials on Tuesday and was told that the money was taken from a special account under the Kagman watershed project.
It is local funding accumulated from private contributions, he said.
According to Cabrera, the paperwork for the purchase of materials needed for the broken pumps is now being prepared, and they are expecting the pumps to be repaired in two weeks.
Local farmers in Kagman have been complaining about the insufficient water supply as only three of the five water pumps there are working.
The two other pumps, according to Cabrera, are down.
About 80 hectares of farm plots in Kagman supply most of the vegetables on Saipan, Cabrera said.
Rep. Candido B. Taman, R-Saipan, earlier introduced House Local Bill 15-62 to appropriate $10,000 for the repair of the two water pumps.
The House Committee on Natural Resources during a recent meeting vowed to find $25,000 for the activation of the reservoir which the farmers believe could be a long-term solution to their problem.
But Taman’s bill has yet to be passed, and the House committee is still looking for a funding source.
The $2.3 million completion of the Kagman watershed project could have also ended the farmers’ problem but the U.S. Congress did not fund it this fiscal year.