Samson calls for removal of sandbar in Calmay River
TO IMPROVE FLOODWATER OUTFLOW
A sandbar between the island Barangay of Pugaro and Sabangan in Bonuan Gueset in the mouth of the Calmay River is among the reasons why the most recent widespread flooding in Dagupan – caused by heavy monsoon rains enhanced by Typhoon Crising (international name: Wiph) – receded slowly, according to Councilor Luis Samson Jr., a city councilor.
In a post on his Facebook page on July 31, Councilor Luis Samson Jr. called on the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to remove the sandbar that is impeding the flow of floodwaters from the upper stream of the Pantal River to the Calmay River.
“During low tide, residents of Sabangan in Bonuan Gueset can walk on this sandbar to go to Pugaro,” he said in a phone interview with The PUNCH.
He noted that the current dredging activities of the DPWH are only concentrated near the point where the Pantal and Calmay rivers meet and not in the more important mouth of the Calmay River, where the sandbar is located.
The councilor from Barangay Pogo Chico called on Mayor Belen Fernandez to include in the city’s next annual budget a fund for the purchase of a new dredging machine so that the city can boost the dredging operations by the DPWH.
Samson noted that a similar initiative was done during the administration of the late Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr., when he was also a city councilor.
Another cause of slow floodwater recession, he said, is the debris and concrete slabs indiscriminately dumped by a DPWH contractor in the river bed when the Quintos Bridge was being reconstructed in the late 1990s.
He believes another contractor who built the new Dawel Bridge leading to Bonuan did the same.
Samson also slammed encroachments by owners of adjacent properties on portions of the Pantal River, including the Star Plaza Hotel, PAMA or Pangasinan Merchant Academy, Nazareth Hospital and even the Magic warehouse in Barangay Malued.
In line with his observations, Samson said he is filing a resolution in the next session of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, calling on the City Engineers Office as well as the DPWH to conduct an inventory of all creeks in Dagupan and assess which ones need immediate rehabilitation. (Leonardo Micua)
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