Lazatin mulls joint session with Pampanga LGUs to solve flooding woes

CITY of San Fernando Vice Mayor Jimmy Lazatin has revived his call for a joint session with nearby local government units (LGUs) to collaboratively address the perennial flooding in their respective areas.

Lazatin urged fellow lawmakers of surrounding LGUs namely Angeles City, Bacolor, Mexico, Sto. Tomas and Minalin towns to participate in the joint session to discuss programs in line with disaster mitigation.

“We are proposing an inter-local government cooperation because flooding problem is not experienced in San Fernando alone but also in neighboring towns and the whole of the province. My proposal is that we consolidate the programs and projects so that there will be no overlapping when we implement them,” Lazatin said.

Through the eyed joint session, Lazatin is hopeful that participating LGUs can come up with a consolidated local legislation that will institutionalize a program aimed at reducing flooding and its destructive effects in the province.

In particular, the vice mayor proposed that LGUs must focus on programs that will ease the flow of floodwaters in the water channels going out of Pampanga River through regular dredging and desilting activities.

In the past years, the LGUs of San Fernando and Sto. Tomas, together with the Department of Public Works and Highways, have united to clear a portion of the Third River, or the Federosa River in particular, to prevent backflow and stagnancy of floodwater.

“We really need to sit down and discuss the problem once and for all because as much as we, here in San Fernando, want to resolve the flooding, we can only do so much because we need the cooperation of our neighboring towns and city. As we all know, our water channels our interconnected and our city government is limited to its territorial jurisdiction,” he said.

Lazatin said he will be asking the chairman of the city council’s Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction and Management to prioritize the said concern, as well as initiate a communication with fellow legislators of the concerned LGUs.

“This is still a long journey but with the cooperation of our neighboring LGUs, it will not be far from realization and hopefully, we can see the effects of this very soon,” he said.