Dredging of Dagupan rivers set to start
DPWH ACTS ON CITY’S REQUEST
DAGUPENOS can begin to look forward to lesser incidents of heavy flooding soon as the dredging of the city’s main rivers and tributaries begin.
At least three dredging machines are already set to be mobilized by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for the dredging of Dagupan City’s already shallow rivers.
City Engineer Virginia Rosario said two dredging machines are now in place in Dagupan while a third is set to arrive within the month.
“The good thing about this dredging operation is not a single centavo will be spent by the local government,” said Rosario during the executive session last April 14 with Mayor Belen Fernandez.
The cost of fuel for the dredging operations will also be borne by DPWH based on the terms of the Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) it will sign with the city government.
Rosario said the DPWH flood control director as well as the director of DPWH in Region 1 are set to arrive together with members of their staff on April 23 to conduct an ocular inspection of the rivers.
“Mayor Fernandez and I will join the inspection and pinpoint the priority areas to be dredged,” Rosario said.
For its part, the City Engineering Office has began building ditches parallel with the pipes being installed by DPWH.
Rosario said with the expected arrival of the third dredging machine, operations will be concentrated first in the lower stream of the Pantal and Calmay Rivers.
The city government’s dredging machine may be deployed upstream once it is repaired.
The city’s dredging machine, now nine years old, had long been unoperational.
The mayor said Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas and Congresswoman Gina De Venecia helped in persuading the DPWH to act on the city’s long-standing request for the dredging of the shallow rivers to minimize flooding in the city during the rainy season.–LVM
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