No More Floods in Some Parts of Calasiao - DPWH

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

CALASIAO – The perennial flooding this town has been enduring for several years with downpours and typhoons has been a thing of the past, 4th District Engineering Office's District Engineer Simplicio D. Gonzales of the Department of Public Works & Highway said.

He cited that in the last five weeks, flood water brought by typhoons and tropical depressions at some areas easily subsided.

Gonzales referred to areas where food chains Chowking and Jollibee are located, those at the Bureau of Internal Revenue, cockpit arena and others.

He said flood water immediately drained out because the owner of the lot in front of the Garden of Eden in the Judge Jose De Venecia Highway agreed that the DPWH constructed a temporary canal that will dump the water from this town to the Banaoang River.

Fourth District Engineering Office's District Engineer Simplicio Gonzales in his office at the Department of Public Works & Highway in Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan.

“My men work there for two days last second week of October,” Gonzales told this writer how personnel of the DPWH using heavy equipment constructed a temporary sewerage system.

He said the owner acquiesced for the canal to stay until the P13 million egress drainage system will be finished next year.

He cited the construction will start January next year after Congress and President Rodrigo Duterte approved the 2020 General Appropriation Act.

“Once it is approved by Congress I will call a bid for it on November so the contractor will start the construction on January 2020,” Gonzales said.

The proposed 2020 GAA is still pending in the House of Senate.

The drainage problem in this burgeoning town started in 2017 when the owner of a land where a creek is located at the Judge Jose de Venecia Highway back filled it to elevate his property. The back filling however impeded the flow of the drainage water that run to the Banaoang River.

Gonzales said another factor that aggravated the problem here was the construction several years ago of the sewerage that was not tilting to the exit in the Banaoang River. He explained that part of the P13 million budget was the reconstruction of a more than kilometer long concrete canal system.

In the year 2021 national budget he will propose to construct another egress of water from the same drainage system that will exit at the Parongking River.  

He cited that his office will have P1.2 billion allocations in fiscal year 2020 similar to this year’s budget from the GAA.

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