By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

THE water control structure and box culvert for the agricultural water supply and flood control in Kagman is finally completed.
Tano Corp. formally turned over the concrete structure to the Soil and Water Conservation District on Tuesday afternoon.
The district is the main sponsor of the project while the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service helped design the structure and plan its construction in collaboration with the Department of Lands and Natural Resources.
Tim Brasuell, project engineer of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, said the structure will be used for the agricultural water supply to Kagman commercial farm plots, and its completion is critical for flood control.
He said the structure is the second phase of the project’s flood control component which involves large reinforced concrete box culverts and water control structures.
Designed for the temporary storage of water the newly built structure will “control the water that comes down from Mt. Tapochao,” Brasuell said.
He said there will be two or more phases for the Kagman watershed project.
But, he added, “this is the critical one — kind of the heart of the flood control system because it will be able to control the water level and we can decide which water we have to let go or use for agriculture and we can even run the water to the quarry which is going to be a future reservoir project, if we need to store water.”
A combination of federal and local funding was made available in 2001 for the project which is the first in the CNMI. It could have been completed years ago, if the first contractor had not gone bankrupt.
The Tano group took over the job in 2003.
Soil and Water Conservation District chairman Isidoro Cabrera said the project will help farmers reduce crop damage, especially during the rainy season from July to November.
It will also benefit Kagman residents who suffer from flooding during heavy rain, he added.