CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Alert on lahar threat that could bury the towns of Minalin and Sto. Tomas in this province has pushed the government to allocate P840 million for engineering interventions to prevent such scenario.
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) announced last Friday the allocation of P840 million for the rehabilitation of a destroyed tail dike along the Pasig-Potrero lahar channel.
The fund would be used to repair dikes and other such structures within the U-shaped anti-lahar megadike, affected by the two-week intense rains caused by typhoon Gener and the southwest monsoon.
DPWH regional director Antonio Molano said the projects to be undertaken include the “immediate closure of the two breached portions of the tail dike”, the re-channeling of the waterway from Gugu Creek, down to San Francisco and Labuan rivers; the rehabilitation of spillways one and three located in the western portion and the center of the transverse dike also in the area of the Pasig-Potrero channel.
Molano stressed the need to dredge Pasig-Potrero River from the upper portion of the transverse dike in Barangay Maliwalu in San Fernando.
Earlier, San Fernando Mayor Oscar Rodriguez raised alarm over millions of tons of Mt. Pinabuto’s lahar debris being remobilized along the Pasig-Potrero during the recent monsoon rains.
The remobilized lahar damaged the transverse dike and the tail dike within the so-called megadike at the river channel, and created two new waterways that flowed towards Minalin and Sto. Tomas.
“What happened to Bacolor town could happen to Minalin and Sto. Tomas unless engineering interventions were undertaken,” he said, referring to the burial of almost the entire town of Bacolor under meters of lahar deposits brought down by waters that rampaged through the Pasig-Potrero River after Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption in 1991.
The DPWH also noted that the flows from the two new channels at the Pasig-Potrero had already caused some lahar siltation also in Barangays San Nicolas, San Pedro Cutud and Sta. Lucia.
In a statement, Gov. Lilia Pineda said, “this serious flooding and heavy siltation caused by these breaches, if unabated, will also affect the McArthur Highway, including a portion of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) between San Fernando and San Simon.”
“At present, these conditions have already dislocated thousands of residents, caused a few deaths, damaged properties and adversely affected businesses.”
Pineda also expressed fears that without immediate engineering solutions, Pampanga would again be confronted with the serious lahar threat it faced after Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption in 1991.
