Flooding in Dagupan no longer widespread—MBTF
MAYOR Belen Fernandez said flooding in Dagupan City was no longer as widespread compared to last year’s and past many years because of the elevation of major roads and the construction of wider and bigger drainage systems in these roads.
Fernandez told a Radyo ng Pilipinas program in Manila, that flooding is now concentrated only on barangays near the Pantal River through which all the waters from upstream pass before emptying to the Lingayen Gulf.
‘We are the catch basin of all water from the upland, that’s why while many towns are already dry, some areas in the city are still under water,” Fernandez told the radio station.
The Dagupan City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council had reported that as of September 10, the barangays still under water were Bacayao Sur, Bacayao Norte, Malued, Lasip Chico, Pogo Chico, Pogo Grande, Lasip Grande, Mayombo, Malued and part of Tapuac.
Fernandez noticed that the flood-prone areas, Arellano Street, part of A.B. Fernandez Avenue, M.H. Del Pilar Sreet and part of Perez Boulevard whose roads were elevated and provided with bigger and wider drainage system by the Department of Public Works and Highways no longer experienced flooding.
Eastern barangays of Dagupan as well as the Bonuan area and the island barangays were also spared by the flood.
She also cited the road in Pantal which was elevated in 2019 and its 0.4 meter drainage system raised to l.6 to 1.8 meters during her previous term as city mayor was again spared by the flood.
The next elevation project of the DPWH will be concentrated on the flooded Tapuac road from the YMCA to Nazareth General Hospital.
Fernandez said another long-term solution to the flood in barangays is the replacement of the old Gabon-type of flood control projects with the sturdier steel-plating type of embankments. Dredging of rivers, she said will continue, and that DPWH agreed to rehabilitate shallow and silted creeks.
She said funds were allocated for the elevation of several barangay roads to alleviate the plight of residents but the majority in the Dagupan Sangguniang Panlungsod refused to pass the supplemental budget that he requested. (Leonardo Micua)
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