Dikes blamed for Masantol floods

MASANTOL, Pampanga — Despite the good weather, residents of seven barangays here found their homes suddenly inundated by up to six feet of floodwaters.

This, as floodwaters from Calumpit and Hagonoy towns in Bulacan were trapped by four-meter high dikes along the eastern banks of the Pampanga River.

Masantol Vice Mayor Bajun Lacap said the dikes, which are part of the unfinished Pampanga Delta development project, "have made the situation worse instead of sparing us from floods, as designed by the Department of Public Works and Highways."

The project’s multibillion-peso flood control component entailed the widening and deepening of the Pampanga River to allow floodwaters from Bulacan and southern Pampanga to freely flow into Manila Bay.

Lacap said about 1,000 hectares of farmlands and fishponds here have been inundated.

He bewailed the government’s failure to finish the flood control project which could have mitigated the flooding.

Lacap said many of those affected by the floods have "sacrificed so much" by abandoning their farms so the river could be widened from 260 meters to about a kilometer. Those displaced were compensated.

Calumpit residents have resisted the river’s widening.

Lacap told The STAR that many children in at least six villages here have been suffering from fever and diarrhea. — With Ric Sapnu