Guv wants immediate rehab breached portion of tail dike

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Aug 26, 2012-To ensure the speedy rehabilitation of the breached portion of the San Fernando-Sto.Tomas-Minalin tail dike, Governor Lilia Pineda said on
Wednesday that she will personally monitor the progress of the work done by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

“This is not the time to be lax. Our constituents cannot wait. We need to make a regular progress report on the status of the tail dike”, Pineda said.

Sometime ago, two portions of the San Fernando tail dike collapsed during heavy rains brought by southwest monsoon that flooded all the seven barangays in Sto.Tomas, 14 in Minalin, and 20 in San Fernando.

“If not immediately repaired, water from Gugu River will continuously flow on the two breached portions of the dike leaving the said villages underwater.

This scenario prompted DPWH Region III Director Antonio Molano to start the rehabilitation of the dike and the rechanneling of the water flow from Maliwalu creek to Pasig-Portrero River while waiting for the P270 million requested funds from DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson for the restoration of water channels and tributaries in the province.

“The desilting and rechanneling of the 3.5 kilometer Gugu River from Maliwalu upstream started early this week," Molano said.

Molano explained that Gugu River needs to be diverted to Pasig-Potrero River to minimize water entry on the infringed tail dike in Sto.Tomas and San Fernando portion, this way, they can start the rehabilitation of the earth dike.

“We can only start repairing the breached dike once the water level subsided,” added Molano.

Meanwhile, Pineda is supervising the desilting and rechanneling of the water flow being carried out by the DPWH. (Carlo Lorenzo J. Datu with reports from Joel P. Mapiles, PIO Pampanga)