Macanlalay joins Dion, Celeste call to solve flood

Calasiao Mayor Mark Macanlalay

DPWH Eng. Rodolfo Dion

BY MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

CALASIAO-This town’s mayor Mark Roy Macanlalay joins the call of high government officials how to control if not solve the perennial flooding here and neighboring city Dagupan.

This after 2^nd District Engineering Office Chief Rodolfo Dion of the Department of Public Works & Highways and Area Manager John Celeste of the National Irrigation Administration proposed recently how to solve the flood that besets Dagupan.

Mayor  Macanlalay noted that the dredging of the Marusay River here should be simultaneously  be done on the river in the town of Sta. Barbara and the city of Dagupan.

He said that the silts on Marusay River that connects on the two local government units are alarming.

 “Look at the color of the water the river is silted. It did not change. When I saw the flood water in Barangays Talibao, Lasip, and San Vicente, I saw there how thick the mud was. It hardened already. What more if you saw the silt on the river beds. We were dredging again and again where government has spent a lot of monies for them but nothing has been visible that the flood has diminished,” Macanlalay explained.

He said dredging should be buttressed by slopes protection so that inundation of the river banks could be avoided to become silt.

Macanlalay noted that his town alone needs between P10 million to P30 million a year to start a dredge operation while Eng. Dion said that a dredging machine from DPWH needs 200 liters of diesel fuel per hour.

200 liters is equivalent to one drum or approximately P10, 000 more or less price tag for Dagupan City alone.
But he said the recovery for one-hour work is high – at least 1,000 cubic meters of silt could be extracted he noted.

Eng. Dion thus recommended six-hour a day dredging for at least one year to dredge the  Pantal River bed of the city.

 Pantal River in Dagupan is connected to the Sinocalan River to where all the water of the Toboy and Tagamusing Rivers in San Manuel and Binalonan, and the Mitura River in Urdaneta are draining their water.

Macanlalay noted that this town can source the fund to implement this anti-flood project from her calamity fund.

The other source the local government units tap to fund its dredging operation and slope protection projects come from the Priority Development Assistance Fund of district congressman and the appropriation given by the national government to the DPWH.