LESS than a year after its construction, a portion of the Pampanga Riverbank protection in Barangay Sta. Rita in San Luis town collapsed Wednesday evening, October 9.
Barangay Sta. Rita Sangguniang Kabataan kagawad Renzo Mata, who posted a video on his Facebook account, said that about five meters of the infrastructure suddenly collapsed and shocked residents around the area.
Fortunately, no casualties were reported during the incident.
Mata said his fellow residents of Barangay Sta. Rita suspect that the cause of collapse is the leak from a water pipe beneath the ground that softened the foundation of the infrastructure.
"Melambut pu ing gabun dahil keng atin yang tinagas danum ning water district, ngeni apalambut nangan pu ing gabun keng lalam na pu ning sementu (The soil softened due to water leaking from the pipes of our water service provider and made the foundation of the infrastructure unstable)," he said.
Mata said the construction of the riverbank protection was only completed earlier this year.
"Bigla la pin melungkut deng kabarangay ku pu habang akakit deng masisira ing bayung gawang dalan. Yapin pu kasi ing dadalanan papunta keng elementary school keng baryu mi (The people in our barangay were saddened while seeing the dike slowly collapsing, especially that it is our access road going to the elementary school)," Mata lamented.
He asked for the immediate intervention from the local or national government to provide convenience and also safeguard the residents who uses the road on a daily basis.
SunStar Pampanga tried to contact Mayor Jay Sagum for further information, but he was unreachable as of press time.