DPWH: Camanava flood control project now 99.5% complete

MANILA, Philippines - An official of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) yesterday assured the public that the Camanava flood control project would be completed before the end of the year.

In a letter sent to The STAR, project director Macariola Bartolo, of the DPWH-Camanava Area Flood Control and Drainage System Improvement Project, said the project is already 99.5 percent finished.

Bartolo sent the letter in response to The STAR’s editorial a few days after typhoon “Pedring,” which said the Camanava megadike project remains unfinished when it was supposed to be completed way back in 2007.

“Where did P3,479,584,407.13 allocated for the project go?...To address the perennial flooding in the area and neighboring cities, the DPWH embarked on a multibillion-peso megadike project for northern Metro Manila,” the editorial said.

Bartolo, however, said typhoon Pedring “was an extraordinary fortuitous event.”

“All dikes and revetments in Malabon and Navotas areas, be it constructed by the national and local governments, were overtopped that caused massive flooding in the area. The occurrence of this phenomenon was an act of nature that our activities could not have controlled even if this project is completed as originally scheduled,” she said.

The P3.4 billion Camanava Flood Control Project covers the flood prone areas in the cities of Caloocan, Malabon and Navotas.