DPWH Earnest to Solve Flooding in Calasiao

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

CALASIAO -  Construction to mitigate the perennial flooding in this burgeoning town has been expedited by construction workers commissioned by the Department of Public Works & Highway.

One of the solutions was the elevation of the concrete drainage system in front of the regional office of the Bureau of Internal Revenue here.

Construction workers said that they want to prevent the flooding there whenever there is downpour through a new concrete waterway that will exit to the Parongking River.

Construction workers from a private contractor commissioned by the Department of Public Works & Highway have been aggressively elevating the concrete drainage canal in front of the regional office of the Bureau of Internal Revenue in Calasiao, Pangasinan. The area submerges easily to flooding whenever there is a downpour.

4th District Engineering Office's District Engineer Simplicio D. Gonzales of the DPWh told Northern Watch Newspaper that aside from the new drainage system going to Banaoang River, the DPWH allocated multi-million of pesos to have another egress of flood water to Parongking River.

He said that the P13 million water work last year to stop if not lessen the flooding in the poblacion area of Calasiao particularly in the peripheries of Chowking to the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s office had been implemented.

The drainage problem in this 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 filling however impeded the flow of the drainage water that exit to the Banaoang River. 

Gonzales said another factor that aggravated the problem there was the construction, not during his watch, of the sewerage system that was not tilting to the egress 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.
He proposed last year to the DPWH in Manila about the funding to construct another egress of water from the same drainage system that would exit at the Parongking River. 

Calasiao and the nearby Dagupan City are the catch basin of flood water in Pangasinan.