After P1B spent, more money needed to stop Dagupan flooding

A JEEPNEY cuts through floodwater on Tapuac Road in Dagupan City, a scene that illustrates the flooding caused by an overflowing river (see map) and high tide. WILLIE LOMIBAO/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

DAGUPAN CITY—The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has allocated funds to build a dike at the Sinocalan River, which overflowed and caused massive flooding in 20 villages here last week.

The water originated at an eroded river bank in neighboring Calasiao town and snaked through villages here. The Sinocalan River cuts through Urdaneta and Dagupan cities and the towns of Binalonan, Santa Barbara and Calasiao before exiting to the Lingayen Gulf. Its head waters are in the Cordillera.

“Our drainage system in the city can absorb the rain but not the overflowing river,” said Dagupan Mayor Belen Fernandez.

The rising water floods an open field in the barangay and crosses to this city’s southern villages through a box culvert built across the De Venecia Highway here.

“We were not consulted about the culvert. They practically directed the water toward us,” said Fernandez.

She said a dike should be built at the Banaoang section of the river to minimize overflow. The water would be diverted to the river.

Fernandez said she was also concerned about a diversion channel at the Sinocalan River that was built in 2013 by the DPWH to ease flooding in Calasiao villages.

Marieta Mendoza, DPWH district engineer in Santa Barbara, said the agency programmed the construction of dikes in Banaoang for 2017.

She said the DPWH had pursued flood control projects along the Sinocalan River in the last nine years.

“We have dredged the Sinocalan River, built protection walls and dikes and raised the roads. I think we have already spent at least P1 billion for these projects,” she said.

In Calasiao, the DPWH has been constructing flood control projects in the villages of Talibaw, Lasip, San Vicente and Banaoang, especially along critical sections of the Sinocalan River to stop erosion and reduce overflow.

“I can also close the box culvert across De Venecia highway, but there has to be a canal to divert the water to the river,” Mendoza said.

The river overflow struck before the city could adjust to the weeklong floods caused by monsoon rains two weeks ago. Floods disrupted classes and business operations in Calasiao and this city.

Vendors in the fish market here sold goods with their feet submerged in at least a foot of water.

Residents coped by wading through floods to go about their daily routine or riding hand tractor-drawn trailers to get to the business district. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon