Government modifies plan for flood control project
THE stalled P1.5 billion Agno River Flood Control Project in Alcala will be finished without uprooting a single mahogany tree of the 10,000 trees planted on its path.
Engr. Fidel Ginez, director of the Agno Floor Control Office, said a two-meter high parapet wall will be constructed as an alternative to the originally planned guide channel.
The new plan was resorted to after talks with the landowners, who were demanding for a total P103 million in compensation, bogged down on June 30
The completion of the guide channel has been delayed by Right-Of-Way (ROW) negotiations between the government and the land owners over compensation for the mahogany trees.
Ginez, together with Alcala Mayor Manuel Collado, upon instruction from Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr. of the Presidential Management Staff, said they were shocked when the landowners demanding P83 million more as compensation for the trees on top of the P20 million earlier offered by the Department of Public Works and Highways.
Ginez, stopping short of accusing the landowners of blackmail, said the compensation being demanded was too high.
The landowners’ demand plus the cost of civil works would have put the total cost of the guide channel at P160 million.
In contrast, the alternative parapet wall, set to be completed in one month’s time, will cost only about P3 million.
“The parapet wall will serve the purpose because with it, the more than 30 residential houses in the area between the Hector Mendoza Bridge and a diversion bridge will no longer be flooded from the onrushing water from upstream of the Agno River,” Ginez said.
He added that leaving the mahogany trees untouched will also prove to be beneficial in maintaining balance in the area’s ecosystem even as he admitted that there would likely be problems in securing a permit from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to cut down the trees.
The Agno River Flood Control Project, a flagship project of the government, is intended to stop the flooding in eastern and central Pangasinan caused by onrushing water from upstream of the Agno River during the rainy season.—LM
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