GMA wants Pasig River dredged by 2010

MANILA, Philippines - President Arroyo has ordered the Pasig River dredging project to be completed by December 2010 in order to lessen, if not resolve, the flooding in Metro Manila and other areas surrounding Laguna Lake, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Lito Atienza said yesterday.

As of Oct. 15, the dredging project was almost 30 percent complete with at least 468, 000 cubic meters of sediment materials already scraped from the riverbed. The project is supposed to run for six more years.

“It’s a good thing that this project started months before the onslaught of tropical storm Ondoy because given the head start we were able to lessen the calamity. If this project did not start months before, the disaster we experienced because of the typhoon could have been worse,” Atienza said.

During her visit yesterday afternoon at the project site, near the mouth of Pasig River in Baseco, the Chief Executive lauded what the project development has attained so far, but still hoped that the dredging operation would be stepped up.

Atienza, who also chairs the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC), which oversees efforts to revive the Pasig River, said the swift flow of water in the river would help lower the water level in Laguna Lake.

“Pasig River provides the natural drainage line for the water from the Laguna Lake towards the Manila Bay. Though this project will not solve the problem of flooding, this will nevertheless greatly help lessen incidents of flooding as well as the destruction especially whenever there is another abnormal volume of rainfall, which is being attributed to climate change,” he said.

Earlier, the PRRC announced that its “comprehensive” dredging of the Pasig River is “definitely making headway.” The Belgian government-sponsored venture formally started last April.

The Pasig River dredging project requires the removal of an estimated 2.83 million cubic meters of debris or sediment from the 27-kilometer Pasig River through the use of five Eco-Grab machines; and its containment to two Underwater Placement Overdepths with Capping (UPOCs) in a “safe site” in Manila Bay.

PRRC deputy executive director Alan Gatpolintan said the undertaking would specifically cover a portion of the Pasig River from an extension into Manila Bay to the Napindan Hydraulic Flood Control Gate.

The dredged materials would be contained using the UPOC technology, a type of confined disposal facility, he also said.

UPOC involves the excavation of the containment cell at the seabed using a tractor suction hopper dredger or mechanical clamshell bucket, Gatpolintan explained. Each UPOC could accommodate 1.4 million cubic meters of contaminated materials.

Atienza said the UPOC technology is “very, very environmentally safe and clean.”

The dredging project aims to improve water quality of the river to reduce health risks, enhance transport potentials, and eliminate or mitigate flooding in the area.

Despite its current polluted state, Gatpolintan said Pasig River can hold as much as 6.5 million cubic meters of water, but the dredging project, once completed, would increase the river’s capacity by as much as 40 percent.