THE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has prepared a flood mitigation master plan to mitigate flooding in the city that includes the elevation of roads, construction of wider and bigger drainage system, dredging of the now shallow rivers and creeks, construction of steel sheet piles along the banks of the Pantal-Sinocolan River, and construction of pumping stations.

This was bared by DPWH officials during their first meeting with the new Flood Mitigation Commission formed by Mayor Belen Fernandez at CSI Stadia Friday morning.

Engr. Kim Angelo Soy, Dredge Master II of DPWH Regional Office, said for dredging operations along the Calmay River, his office already deployed five dredging machines: the Dredge Visayas 1, Dredge 14-A, Water Master K3-14, Dredge 8 and Amphibious Excavator K4-3.

Dredge Visayas 1, he said, already recovered 207,500 cubic meters of silt while Water Master K3-14 already removed 204,000 cubic meters of silt from the river, but Dredge 14-A is still on standby pending the arrival of operational fund from the Bureau of Equipment of the DPWH.

Soy told Dagupan City barangay captains that the dredging operations at the Calmay River is a special project funded solely by the national government through the DPWH’s Bureau of Equipment that already started in 2015.

Defending the dredging operations, Soy said study showed that the sea level rose to three meters in 1993 but it rose seven times more from 2015 to 2020 because of worsening global warming.

He said the only participation of the Dagupan City Engineering Office in the dredging operation is to haul dredged materials to another site for landfilling purposes.

Soy confirmed that the Pantal River is already shallow, measuring six meters at the vicinity of the new Pantal Bridge on Jose de Venecia Expressway and only 3.6 meters at the vicinity of the Magsaysay Bridge on Perez Boulevard.

“You must have noticed that kahit hindi umulan dito ay baha tayo,” Engr. Soy said.

Soy revealed that a more intensive dredging operation is expected along Pantal and Limahong Channel through a project to be supported by the Pangasinan government.

Meanwhile, Engr. Rapunzel Claveria of DPWH’s Second Pangasinan Engineering District, revealed the Pantal River is more than 20 kilometers long, but only six kilometers were provided with steel sheet piles, in place of the old Gabion type .

Engr. Marvin Espejo, also of the DPWH regional office, said the other embankment projects in Dagupan recommended by the Dagupan City government will be built in 2024.

From the presentation of the DPWH officials, road elevation will extend to Villaflor Hospital and the same will be done along the flood-prone Tapuac-Lucao Road and Perez Boulevard-Burgos junction. (Leonardo Micua)

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