THE Dagupan City government is raring to complete the elevation of the roads and drainage system in major junctions in the commercial district to minimize the impact of severe flooding in these areas during and after the onslaught of a typhoon.

So far, the finished the completed construction of the areas, from the A.B. Fernandez Ave. East to Arellano St., has belied the lies maliciously spread by the opposition in the Sangguniang Panlungsod that residents will suffer more on account of wrong technical assumptions made by the DPWH project. The expected usual severe flooding in those areas did not happen. Instead, vehicles that braved the typhoon proceeded without delay, and pedestrians walked to their destinations safely without having to risk walking through the usual knee-deep flood waters.

But through it all, lost in the minds of residents is the worst scenario that would befall the city, a scenario that would keep residential barangays isolated for days. A scenario that not even a state of calamity, nor elevated roads and drainage system could alleviate the sufferings of residents. A would-be deadly scenario is being overlooked.

Typhoon Carina hinted at it but thankfully, its impact was short-lived and circumstances were not severe. By severe, we refer to the high level and volume of the rush of floodwaters from Sinocalan River that otherwise would cause the shallow river bed of Pantal River to overflow in deadly volume. Recall how rushing floodwaters from the San Roque Dam and a set cycle of high tide days occurred at the same time that saw the Pantal River wiping out hundreds of homes, and livestock, and lost several lives.

Responsible for the shallow river bed today is the continued operations of the illegal fish pens. The city has already seen in the not-too-distant past how the daily unrelenting dumping of thousands of bags of commercial fish feeds caused millions of damages to the city, and this will be replayed soon if this is not stopped soon

Mayor Belen Fernandez strictly enforced the city ordinance on illegal fish pens during her first but interrupted term, to keep the river bed and tributaries deep, and she succeeded. But the illegal fish pens returned with a vengeance and proliferated, thanks to the Lim administration.

Her tolerant policy today for the last two years already helped the fisherfolks involved in the operations to cope with post-Covid pandemic period.

It’s time she strictly enforces the ordinance again to protect the city from a major disaster waiting to happen and eject the fish pen owners, mostly affluent and not city residents, who’ve earned millions for the past five years while risking the fate of Dagupeños, with nothing shared with the city.

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