CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga—Central Luzon contributes 9.3 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product, but this productivity is in danger because of the annual flooding that needs immediate solutions, like the construction of two huge containment dams in the region.
Severino C. Santos, regional director of the National Economic and Development Authority in Central Luzon, said at least two dams should be built immediately in San Antonio, Nueva Ecija and the Candaba swamp in Pampanga, to serve as catch basins that would protect the region’s investments.
Santos, who also serves on the secretariat of the Regional Development Council, said flooding, especially in Pampanga, comes from Nueva Ecija because of the denuded forests of the Sierra Madre mountains.
“To maintain our annual regional growth of 5.3 percent, we need immediate construction of these impounding dams, which can also be harnessed as power and irrigation during summer,” Santos said.
He said the dams may entail several billion pesos, but the benefits justify the price owing to the annual damages on both private and government properties brought about by floods during the rainy season.
Santos also recommend the immediate reactivation of the Pampanga River Control System to dredge and widen all river channels leading to the mouth of Manila Bay.
During a forum here, Santos said local government units must enlighten the residents—mostly farmers in Candaba, Apalit, San Simon, and San Luis that comprise the 29,000-hectare swamp—on the importance of converting the swamp into an impounding dam for everybody’s benefit.
The swamp, which is now worth P1 million per hectare, is planted with rice and vegetables that farmers harvest twice a year, thanks to mechanized farming.
The swamp can also be harnessed like the Tennessee Valley Authority in the United States for irrigation, power, tourism, and others, Santos said.
The flooding is also the reason why more investments are poured into Southern Luzon than in Central Luzon, said Santos, who was the former Neda director in Region IV.
Reactivating the Pampanga River Control System, meanwhile, would require the government dredge and widen all river channels in Pampanga, Bulacan, Bataan and Zambales. The river system was closed during the administration of President Benigno Aquino III for alleged graft and corruption.
The RDC findings show the river channels are heavily silted and narrow, and dotted with illegal fishponds owned “by very influential persons like big businessmen, active and retired police and military officers and politicians,” Santos said.
“Before anything else, we first need to solve the flooding in the region to maintain our growth and invite more investors to come over in the region,” he added.