Corruption in the Dredging Operation to End the Flooding

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

The silver bullet to solve the flooding in many parts of Pangasinan is massive dredging of the river beds. I talked recently with a mayor, a former District Engineer of the Department of Public Works & Highway (DPWH) in Metro Manila, who illustrated to me how a former ten –foot deep river is now a three-foot deep.

Dredging operation using an Excavator equipment.  Courtesy of Sommersetlive

 Common sense dictates - I told myself as he explained to me that narrow water way - that the surge of water from the Cordillera Region to egress in Lingayen Gulf in Pangasinan would overflow. Those excess water goes to the flood besieged villages and the town proper of some municipalities and cities and prejudiced lives and properties.

MASSIVE DREDGING AND THE HUMAN GREED

Incase our Congressmen and women realized that those elevated roads they interceded for the national government to fund their projects through the DPWH and other departments could be useless (look at Dagupan City: 30 inches elevated highway was flooded by 14 inches of water not to mention the 1.5 meters flood to the residences along the road)) would now vigorously lobby for the massive dredging to get rid of the silts from the river bed that constrict the flow of the water especially during a super typhoon and heavy downpour.

But there is a problem to the efficacy of dredging. It is the human avarice or greed to deceive the government of its precious funds.

How dredging works. Dredgeyard.com

A former mayor told me before that a member of Congress, the D.E of the DPWH and the in-house official of the Commission on Audit (COA) in that office of the DPWH conspired to pocket almost half of the intended funding of the dredging operation.

The racket was to dredge the two sides portion of the river while the middle portion that got a bigger width was untouched. The expenses mostly for the diesel of the heavy equipment like excavator mounted on the barge went to the pockets of these knaves.

  The former Hizzoner – a seasoned contractor – told me on conditioned of anonymity that the lawmaker pockets 25 percent from the construction of dikes and 40 percent allegedly from the dredging operation that made the district vulnerable to flood – a bane to the constituents.

Because of avarice, the science of dredging to mitigate if not end the flooding will go to naught.

 

 READ MY OTHER BLOG:

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MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

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I am a twenty years seasoned Op-Ed Political Writer in various newspapers and Blogger exposing government corruptions, public officials idiocy and hypocrisies, and analyzing local and international issues. I have a master’s degree in Public Administration and professional government eligibility. I taught for a decade Political Science and Economics in universities in Metro Manila and cities of Urdaneta, Pangasinan and Dagupan. Follow me on Twitter @totoMortz or email me at totomortz@yahoo.com.