Chico River flood control project to protect folks, lands

By Carol Guidangen Gano

TABUK CITY, Kalinga -- The completed flood control project along Chico River now stands to protect more than 1,300 residents of Barangay Calanan here and their agricultural lands from flooding.

The completed 280 meter-long, 36-meter wide and average of 4.5 m high flood control section was funded under the Dept. of Interior and Local Government’s  Bottom-up Budgeting worth P10 million with the City of Tabuk sharing its counterpart of more than P 4.8 million. 

It is part of the 10,834-meter Comprehensive River Control Plan of the City of Tabuk programmed to traverse down from its head point at the Canao Bridge at Barangay Calanan to Barangay Cabaruan.

There were earlier attempts by the city government to contain the raging flood waters of the Chico River especially during the rainy season. 

Dikes made of sand and gabion type were all washed by the flood waters.

DILG-CAR Regional Director Marlo L. Iringan in his speech during the inauguration and turn-over commended the City of Tabuk for the fast implementation of projects and for its good performance. 

He said that the project is a manifestation of national government’s desire to help LGUs overcome the challenges they are facing. 

He also said that the BuB is a strategy to increase people’s participation in governance and in addressing development needs.

This project is among the projects identified by the Local Poverty Reduction Action Team of the City of Tabuk, as contained in the required Local Poverty Reduction Action Plan of the Bottom-up Budgeting (BuB).  As a participatory budgeting process, the BuB engages civil society organizations in project identification, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. 

DILG directly downloads its BuB project funds to qualified local governments. 

Other projects inaugurated on the same day are two local access roads funded under the BuB – Local Government Support Fund are the Gobgob  and Appas Local Access Roads.

With the completion of the BuB projects, Tabuk City Mayor Ferdinand B. Tubban in his acceptance speech expressed gratitude to the DILG, the CSOs and to all Tabuk City personnel as partners in development. He willingly assumed the responsibility for the maintenance of these completed projects. -With reports from DILG Kalinga