Dagupan walled riverbanks seen to ease flooding

FLOOD RIDE “Kuliglig” (carriage pulled by a hand tractor) becomes the ride of choice for Dagupan residents when floods submerge parts of the city center. —WILLIE LOMIBAO

DAGUPAN CITY—The city government is planning to put up steel sheet piles along riverbanks to help ease the perennial floods here, officials said.

The city’s flood mitigation commission has proposed the floodwall alongside pumping stations and floodgates that it earlier recommended.

The commission is tasked with crafting a master plan that includes short, medium and long-term flood control mechanisms.

Joseph Lo, commission vice chair, said the steel sheet piles would act as barriers to prevent rivers from overflowing during heavy rain.

Useless

“Without the sheet piles, the pumping stations would be useless,” Lo said.

The city’s pumping stations were similar to those installed in Navotas City, which had solved its flooding.

But unlike Navotas where its main waterways are located only on one side, Dagupan is surrounded by seven rivers that all drain into the Lingayen Gulf.Since the city serves as a waterway of rainwater from nearby towns and provinces that is discharged into the Lingayen Gulf, it becomes prone to flooding.Floodwater is stuck for weeks in the city due to several factors, including silted rivers.

The commission said the city also needed to undertake dredging at the opening of the Pugaro-Lingayen Gulf area and inward to the stretch of Pantal River here.

“Dredging is the only way to improve the water flow in the rivers flowing into the gulf,” the commission said. —YOLANDA SOTELO