DINALUPIHAN, Bataan -- Gone were the days when this lone landlocked town in the province was flooded for days and roads were not passable due to breast-high water in some areas.
Municipal administrator Roland Rojas said on Wednesday that out of the 46 barangays usually flooded when the southwest monsoon strikes, only 10 remain affected by flooding after Mayor Maria Angela Garcia took over the reign of the municipal government six years ago.
“Flooding then lasted for almost a week but now, it only takes some hours to subside in the 10 remaining villages,” he said.
Rojas said right after Garcia assumed the mayorship, she focused on the perennial flooding problem in the town and a year after, embarked on a massive flood control program.
The program, according to acting Municipal Engineer Isagani Chavez, included the desilting of rivers and creeks, clearing of canals and construction of additional ones, strengthening of dikes and upgrading of roads.
He said that with the completion of the projects, Dinalupihan is now 80 percent flood-free.
The projects, Chavez said, were made possible through the assistance of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the provincial government under Governor Albert Garcia, the mayor’s brother.
The DPWH is also about to finish constructing a multi-million-peso man-made river to lessen spillage of water from the Layac River, which, during the past years, easily became swollen and spilled water to surrounding villages.
To address the remaining flood problem in 10 villages, Rojas said Mayor Garcia has requested DPWH to fund the desilting, with slope protection, of the Lambingan creek in Barangay Pita down to the Dila-Dila creek in Barangay San Ramon up to the Colo River.
The project, in coordination with DPWH, provincial and the municipal governments will pass through barangays Sapang Balas, New San Jose, and Sto. Niño.
Chavez said DPWH has funded the three-kilometer project with PHP150 million.
Moreover, to end the flooding in the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) tunnels in Sapang Balas and Pita, the provincial and municipal governments will allocate PHP50 million for a desilting project.
“Some 12,000 residents are affected by the flooding in the two SCTEX tunnels so Mayor Garcia ordered the construction of canals in the area for the flood to easily subside,” Rojas said. (PNA)
