By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

THE completion of the Kagman watershed project may take a little longer to finish because the U.S. Congress did not fund it, according to a Natural Resources Conservation Service district conservationist.
The watershed project is supposed to be funded by Congress every year, but Scott Crocke yesterday said it was not funded over the past two years and is “not projected to be funded next year.”
Crocket said the U.S. Department of Agriculture is doing everything it can to have the project funded, but it is up to Congress whether or not to fund it.
He said the watershed system, though incomplete, “actually works.” It is designed to bring the water from Mt. Tapochao down to the tank.
It has two components, he said. The flood control and the irrigation components which the CNMI government wants to be completed first.
The irrigation component of the project, which requires local funding, is 90 percent done, while the flood control is 60 percent done, Crocket said.
The water control part structure and box culverts have been completed and were formally turned over to the local Soil and Water Conservation District last February.
Crocket said farmers can make the best use of the watershed if they fix the two pumps that are not working and if they don’t cheat when using the system.
Department of Land and Natural Resources Secretary Ignacio Dela Cruz earlier said that the insufficient water supply for the commercial farm plots in Kagman is caused by farmers using the pumps out of schedule.
Farmers in the past few weeks have been complaining of decreasing harvests due to an insufficient water supply.
They want to know how the watershed project can help them.
Crocket said the watershed project works if everyone cooperates.
He said local farmers may lobby Congress to secure funding for the watershed project.