The Bulacan provincial government has embarked on a massive flood control program envisioned to be a concrete and long-term solution to its decades-old problem of inundation.

Governor Daniel R. Fernando, together with the national government and local officials, on Monday announced the start of the provincewide implementation of the Bulacan River Dredging and Restoration Program.

Addressing Bulacan congressmen, mayors, vice mayors, and other officials at the project launch held at EDSA Shangri-La Hotel in Metro Manila, the governor said massive dredging works would start on the second week of May to restore the heavily silted river systems of Angat, Pamarawan, Malolos, Hagonoy and Guiguinto and open a navigational channel in the offshore delta.

“The plan is to initially dredge the mouth of the river to enable us to enter smaller inland waters throughout the province. Environmental dredging combined with management of flood water movement, through the construction of floodwalls and floodgates, will be the key to solve the decades-old flooding problem in the province,” he said.

Fernando is hopeful that the effects of the river restoration, through the help of their private partner TCSC Corp., will be immediately felt in the coming rainy season.

He said the private firm would finance the project, as it projected revenue sharing through the commercial disposition of dredged materials from the rivers.

“Ang mga expert engineers and geologists mula sa TCSC Corp. ay gagamit ng state of the art power dredging vessels na may kakayahang mag-dredge ng 1,500 hanggang 2,000 cubic meters per hour kumpara sa mga karaniwang draga na halos aabutin ng isang buwang operasyon para ma-dredge ang katumbas ng isang oras na volume na ito (Expert engineers and geologists from TCSC Corp. will use state-of-the-art power dredging vessels that have the capacity to dredge 1,500 to 2,000 cubic meters per hour compared to the usual dredging vessels which almost take a month to dredge the equivalent to an hour of this volume). It’s a game-changer,” the governor said.

The plans and design of the river restoration program will be carried out with care for the environment.

According to TCSC Corp., a systematic, scientific, and ecologically oriented deepening of the heavily silted rivers would be carried out so that the flow of water from their tributaries would gradually return to normal.

Fernando also called on Bulakenyos to do their part in putting an end to the perennial flooding problem in the province. (PNA)

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