Estanislao Albano, Jr.
TABUK CITY, Kalinga – Farmers in this city whose lands are
threatened by the Chico River should gear up for the worst because as
far as immediate interventions that could save the ricelands along the
river in coming typhoons are concerned, the chances are not good.
Kalinga District Engineer Alexander Castaneda admitted that when
it comes to engineering interventions that could provide immediate
relief to the farmers, the hands of the Department of Public Works and
Highways (DPWH) are virtually tied by the inadequacy of funds.
That’s because all they are now depending upon to address the
Chico River problem is their regular infrastructure funds and what
Congressman Manuel Agyao can share from his Priority Development
Assistance Fund the total of which is just a drop in the bucket when
one considers the fund needed.
This is the reason the flood control structures the DPWH have so
far constructed on the Chico River are piecemeal and therefore have
limited impact on the problem, Castaneda said.
“We should have a comprehensive design and bigger fund because
when the work is piecemeal, the river only meanders. It only protects
some portions but not the whole stretch of the threatened area. There
should be a comprehensive study,” Castaneda said.
That’s precisely why, according to him, during a Regional
Development Council (RDC) meeting a few months before the last
elections, he had recommended the creation of the Lower Chico Flood
Conrtol Office under the umbrella of the DPWH as his response to the
proposal of the Kalinga LGU for the purchase of a dredging machine.
“The office will make a comprehensive study of the problem
integrating all the issues of concerned line agencies like the NIA
(National Irrigation Administration), the DA (Department of Agriculture)
and the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources)
relative to flooding and soil erosion caused by the Chico River. The
plan was to have then President Arroyo issue an executive order creating
the body before she steps down but we were unable to beat it,”
Castaneda said.
He said that the proposed office is patterned after the Lower
Agno Flood Control Office in Pangasinan which receives regular funding
for flood control purposes.
Castaneda explained that he had proposed the creation of the
body instead of supporting the proposal of the Kalinga LGU for a
dredging machine because the equipment is only good for soil and the
deposits in the Chico River are boulders and stones.
“The best solution is rechanelling so that the discharge area
will be defined to prevent the river from meandering. This does not only
require dredging but the construction of structures to fix the flow of
the water. This requires a comprehensive design and massive funding. In
itself, the conduct of the study is already expensive,” Castaneda said.
Asked about the status of his proposal, Castaneda advised that the ZZW contact the RDC.
Meanwhile, Tabuk Mayor Ferdinand Tubban is set to form a task
force composed of the NIA, the DA, the LGU and the stakeholders to
plan ways and means of minimizing the damage by the Chico River to the
farmlands of the city.
Barangay captain Rogelio Polon of Cabaruan, the most downstream
part of the city, has confided to the media that the phenomenon of
landowners becoming impoverished overnight has become more and more
common as the Chico River continues to eat away large chunks of the soil
every time it swells.
He reported that during typhoons Pedring and Quiel, 10 hectares
of rice lands was wiped out by the river and some seven hectares has
been buried in a deep layer of rocks and sand.
“It was worse last year because 50 hectares was eroded. Many of
residents who used to own lands now work as laborers in the lands of
others,” Polon said.
Polon and the rest of the residents of Cabaruan now believe that
the solution to the flooding is dredging of the river bed because
engineering structures have proven useless or even made things worst for
them through the years saying that during the two recent typhoons, a
newly constructed gabion wall was dislodged with the water tearing away
the land it was supposed to protect.
