DPWH bio-engineering used to prevent landslides

By Dexter A. See

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- The Cordillera office of the Department of Public Works and Highways has adapted environment-friendly technology in slope protection to spare communities from dangers of soil erosion and landslides particularly during heavy rains like the disaster wherein 180 people died here October 2009 when a mountainside collapsed at the height of a typhoon.

This, after the agency proved that coco fiber has been instrumental in reducing the occurrence of landslides and soil erosions in the disaster-stricken Barangay Ambassador in Tublay, Benguet the past months.

With the successful pilot testing of coco fiber in Barangay Ambassador, the DPWH is now using coco fiber in the landslide-prone areas of Bokod town located along the stretch of the Benguet-Nueva Vizcaya road to prevent soil erosion from destroying the multi-billion newly-rehabilitated national road that links the Cordillera