Engr. Hits DPWH, Dagupan Mayor for Misguided Flood Control

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza, MPA

A seasoned Engineer who knows the nuances of flooding and how to solve it lambasted the Department of Public Ways and Highways (DPWH) and the administration of Dagupan City Mayor Belen Fernandez of their failure to commission a drainage engineer to solve if not mitigate the perennial flooding that haunts the coastal city. The incompetence of these two bodies prejudice businessmen who closed shop because they were underwater while residents spent an arm and a leg to elevate their ground floors because of the incessant elevations of highways that made them susceptible to flood that should be egressing to the rivers.

A rowboat owned by Victory Liner ferries
its passengers in Dagupan City.
 Victory Liner's photo

If the leadership of the flood-prone Marikina City have implemented their ten- year flood mitigation plan with success, the leadership in Dagupan City to solve its water problem is still a chicken running without a head?

 Marikina solved its perennial problem by dredging and widening her existing creeks and canals, declogged and improved her drainage systems, hollowed out her major streets and turned into underground spillways and canals to handle bigger volumes of floodwater, and built large and sturdy river walls to protect the communities near the river.

All these projects took over 10 years to complete after the city was heavily scourged by Typhoon Ondoy in 2009. The city’s first big stress test was Typhoon Ulysses in 2020 which many compared to Ondoy she hurdled it with flying colors. While Dagupan City’s residents like me still brace for more than a foot or two of dirty and smelly water level as of this writing (2:16 Pm Friday) inside and outside of my abode, the residents of Marikina City – the usual brunt of the overflowing Wawa Dam nearby – was unscathed when the typhoon wrought havoc in Luzon Monday's night.

Marikina Mayor Maan Teodoro said dredging operations continue while a slope protection project is ongoing. The project by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the DPWH seek to widen and deepen the river to increase its water carrying capacity.

 “Hindi masosolve ang baha kung walang drainage engineer na magpaplano ar magde-design,” the Engineer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told me.

He said that three years ago Mayor Fernandez met with the officers of the City Engineering Office and the DPWH to discuss how to solve the flood in her turf. My source was surprised that nobody among them mentioned how the drainage system through an engineer who has expertise on it could solve the puzzle.

A branch of Jollibee at Perez Boulevard in Dagupan City looks like a swimming pool after being flooded from the scourge of Typhoon Crising and the south moonson rain. Mortz C. Ortigoza

“Panay road engineer ang nandoon kaya iyon left and right tambak ng tambak (highway elevation – Author). Ang drainage engineer dapat panay gawa ng hukay para sa canals upang dalhin ang mga tubig sa ilog through gravity,” My source explained to me.

He elaborated the when the river swell, the gate of the drainage canals should be closed and the water there would be pumped out by a machine to the river.

The pumping is not different to the rain water in the detention tank (equivalent to a 4-story building) that sits underground at the Bonifacio Global City (BGC) before it is systematically released into the nearby creeks and the Pasig River --- which ultimately flows out to Manila Bay. As a result, flooding on the streets of BGC is prevented. The same strategy being done in those flood prone areas of Japan.

Why not the government constructs an undergound detention tanks in Dagupan?

The engineer who gave me his different approaches to control flooding (more on that in the next blog) has his conclusion:

“God already initiated, identified and created the waterways, rivers and creeks which we have to take care of them.  If necessary, we could also add and create ones. We should properly operate and maintain these rivers, creeks and main/secondary drainage canals to its original width and depth and even widen and deepen them thus to protect us from flood. There is a saying if you allow to raise the river bank and road embankment (highway elevations in Dagupan – Author), then you are allowing to raise the flood level. Why not consider lowering the flood level in all areas and not only the roadway?”.

I could not forgive myself if I could not inject in this blog the quip of former DPWH 2^nd Pangasinan District Office Chief Engineer Rodolfo “Boy” Dion when I assailed the endless highway elevations in Dagupond, err, Dagupan on my latest blog: He emphatically said: “It’s a sabotage!”

A detention tank (equivalent to a 4-story building) that sits underground at the Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Taguig City. Taguig.com

Dion on August 2023 hogged the headlines of various provincial newspapers when he called as economic sabotage the construction of the road and drainage elevation projects by the DPWH during the hearing of the city lawmaking body.

His “economic sabotage” statement was perked up probably upon learning that Bureau of Internal Revenue – Central Pangasinan’s Chief Lope Tubera told this writer who wrote it on his July 2023 blog (101 Talk Radio and P’nan News and the weekly newspaper’s Northern Watch) that his office had a shortfall of P147 million for his 2023 collection because of the lethargic economic activities in Dagupan since 2022. 

Photo grabs from Julieta Idos Layacan Juliet

This writer has been blaming the endless demolition of roads and drainage canals so the DPWH could elevate them as responsible for the woes of the folks in the Bangus City.

‘Nuff said!