TABUK CITY, Kalinga -- Stakeholders from the government and private sectors have come up with plans to dredge the Chico River and abate flooding of low lying areas in this capital city.
Dr. Jaime Almora, director of Almora General Hospital and a rice grower, expressed optimism that possible solutions are now being carried out to solve the problem.
He said key officials, all of whom are engineers, namely Rep. Manuel Agyao, Mayor Ferdinand Tubban and District Engineer Alexander Castañeda approved the dredging approach.
Castañeda said the best solution was rechanneling water so the discharge area will prevent the river from meandering.
He said Chico River does not only require dredging but construction of structures to fix the flow of the water, hence it requires a comprehensive design and funding.
Castañeda had recommended to the Regional Development Council the creation of the Lower Chico Flood Control Office under the umbrella of the DPWH.
It was his response to the proposal of the Kalinga local government unit for the purchase of a dredging machine.
He said he made a counter proposal instead of supporting the original proposal of dredging equipment, which is only good for soil.
The deposits in the Chico River, he said, are boulders and stones.
Patterned after the Lower Agno Flood Control Office in Pangasinan, the office will make a comprehensive study of the problem integrating all the concerns of line agencies like the National Irrigation Administration, Department of Agriculture and Department of Environment and Natural Resources relative to flooding and soil erosion caused by the Chico River,” Castaneda said.
The idea of Tubban to create a task force composed of the government agencies and stakeholders to come up with measures to mitigate damage on farmlands of Tabuk at the banks of the Chico River also runs along the same line of unifying efforts and pooling of available resources to combat the inroads of the Chico River into the Tabuk Valley.
Almora's group earlier pushed dredging of the Chico River as a solution to the perennial flooding in low lying areas in the city.
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