A dam is to be built close to the municipality of Aurora to serve as a reservoir for waters rushing down elevated landforms during storms, preventing sudden and severe flooding in low-lying and flood-prone areas such as Pampanga, its Governor Lilia Pineda said on Friday.
Pineda said that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had told her during his visit that he had already ordered the construction of the dam, with plans already in the works under the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the National Irrigation Administration (NIA).
“Mayroon na siyang (President Marcos) inutos na maglalagay sila ng isang (indecipherable) dam, lalo na doon sa may bandang Aurora, kung saan malakas ang tubig bago bumaba ng Pampanga. Pinaplano (na) niya sa NIA at tsaka DPWH,” she said in an early evening interview on the program Balanysado.
The governor also mentioned Marcos’ plans for the five sabo dams to be built to hold off rainfall runoff from the Sierra Madre mountain range.
“Ewan ko kung mangyayari pero pagagawan din ng dam ‘yung pababa ng Sierra Madre,” she said.
Governor Pineda said that the most effective way to avoid intense, destructive flooding would be to redirect the runoff into a large reservoir before it even reaches low-lying areas.
“Ang paraan lang talaga, kahit hindi ako engineer, sabi ng NIA tsaka ng DPWH, ang dapat talaga, parang mayroon kang malaking reservoir, na mayroon kang dam, sa taas pa lang. Sa taas pa lang, tigilan mo na, para hindi dire-diretsong pumupunta sa’min,” she said.
Earlier, she said that almost all bodies of water in Pampanga had overflowed, or came close to doing so.
“Malala kasi ‘yung bagsak ng tubig-ulan, grabe, hindi naman nangyayari itong ganito, pero halos lahat: mga tributaries, nago-overflow, ‘yung mga long river namin, halos ‘yung iba gamuntik na ring mag-overflow, pati ‘yung mga maliliit na ilog,” she said.
She mentioned the collapse of four houses situated by a dike, washed away by powerful currents.
“Nagtaka kami, lalo na kanina, nabigla na lang, bigla talagang mayroong flash flood ‘yung tubig. ‘Yung apat nga ng bahay, ‘yung katabi ng dike, sabay-sabay silang nalaglag, kasi talagang ‘yung current ng tubig, sobra,” she told the anchors.
“Parang minsan, kala ko sabi ng PAGASA, ‘light and moderate’ na lang, pero parang bagyo,” she added.
