MINALIN, Pampanga, (PNA) — The breached portion of Sta. Rita tail dike has already been closed for the safety of the people, town officials said.
Town mayor Edgar Flores said they had done their share, with the help of various officials supporting the “Save Minalin Movement”, to strengthen the damaged portion of the tail dike.
“We cannot rely on the present engineering structure. We did what we need to be done for the welfare of our constituents,” Flores said.
The mayor said that work on the tail dike was accomplished with the help of other elected officials in neighboring municipalities.
Fourth district Representative Juan Pablo Bondoc, one of the advocates of the “Save Minalin Movement”, thanked the officials of the regional office of the Department of Public Works Highways (DPWH) for the support in the campaign to rehabilitate and reinforce the existing dike structure.
Bondoc said that closing the breached portion of Sta. Rita tail dike is not the ultimate solution to the problem.
“First, we need to close the breached portion of the tail dike. Second, we need to open the creeks in the downstream to let flow the water,” he said.
It can be recalled that massive flooding occured in this town, Sto. Tomas, Minalin, Macabebe and Masantol due to tremendous amount of water coming from the river flowing in the megadike and downstream to the affected areas.
This resulted to overflowing and breached in several portions of the said dike.
The lawmaker earlier suggested re-opening the Ventura river, as one of the original water channels draining to the Labuan River in Minalin.
He explained that water should pass through the Pasig-Potrero River out to the Labuan River, then to Sasmuan River going to Pasac River.
Board Member Nestor Tolentino, meanwhile, said they had already submitted to the public works department recommendations on the proposed thorough rehabilitation of the damaged taildike.
“We are running out of time that’s why we’ve done what is right. We did bayanihan to closre the breached portion of the dike,” Tolentino said.