CLARK FREEPORT – The sun’s out, intermittently, breaking the heavy downpour of the past weeks; typhoons Egay and Falcon gone, finally, but the waters keep on rising in Masantol, Pampanga.
At the Kapi-Hann media forum of the Pampanga Press Club at Swissotel-Clark on Wednesday, Masantol Mayor Jose Antonio Bustos said the floodwaters draining through the Pampanga River were on backflow due to high tide, siltation and garbage deposits at the mouth of Manila Bay.
The same backflow occurrence is also noted in the other Pampanga coastal municipalities of Macabebe, Sasmuan, and Lubao, as well as the towns of Hagonoy and Calumpit in the adjacent province of Bulacan.
Bustos said the Pampanga delta needed to be dredged anew to prevent the backflow.
The delta was last dredged and widened in 2000 under the Pampanga Delta Development Project (PDDP) through a 30-year loan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
Signed in 1990, the project aimed to “enhance flood controls on the lower basins of the Pampanga River, an area prone to perennial flooding, by implementing river improvement works, thereby contributing to improvements in living standards and to regional economic growth.”
It took a decade for the PDDP to be completed owing to the opposition of residents who were displaced by the project.
In a recent media report, Department of Public Works and Highways-Region 3 director Roseller Tolentino said the dredging of the delta in Masantol and Macabebe, as well as in Calumpit and Hagonoy, has undergone a feasibility study and is to be financed under the second phase of a Korean-funded flood mitigation project.
Aside from dredging, Bustos has called for the construction of a ring dike around the municipalities contiguous to Manila Bay and a breakwater system for flood-mitigation.
In October last year, the young mayor spearheaded the conduct of a flood summit attended by the DPWH and officials of adjoining towns of the 4th District of Pampanga.
“We are compelled now more than ever to really assist our constituents,” said Bustos.
As of Aug. 2, all 26 barangays of Masantol were still submerged floodwaters ranging from one foot to three feet in depth, affecting some 21,000 families of which 386 have been moved to evacuation centers.
Bustos thanked President Marcos Jr., Senators Imee Marcos, Bong Go, Riza Hontiveros, and Jinggoy Estrada as well as national government agencies for their assistance and support to his constituents.
In particular, he cited Gov. Dennis “Delta” Pineda: “Talagang si Gov po mismo ang personal na naghahatid ng food packs. Salamat po, sir.” Punto News Team
