MASANTOL — President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Wednesday led the inauguration of the first stage of the Integrated Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation (IDRR-CCA) Measures in Low-Lying Areas of Pampanga Bay on Wednesday, August 7.
The ?7.57-billion project is funded under the Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the Republic of Korea under Loan Agreement No. PHL-17 with the Korean Economic Development Cooperation Fund (KEDCF).
Marcos said the project will benefit the towns of Macabebe, Masantol, Minalin, and Sto. Tomas.
“We are very optimistic that this will redound to improving the people’s lives by enhancing the disaster resilience of all our communities,” Marcos said.
The project was implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Unified Project Management Office - Flood Control Management Cluster.
The new infrastructure includes the Sapang Maragul Bridge, a sluice gate, and a road gate.
DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan said the project will improve the waterway capacity and the drainage efficiency of the river channel networks in Pampanga, including the Third River, the Eastern Branch Channel, the Caduang Tete River, and the Sapang Maragul River, that all flows to the Pampanga Bay.
He added that the project included dredging, excavation, and embankment works of the subject rivers, increasing their discharge capacity and reducing massive flooding to the susceptible areas.
The flood control infra also covered the construction of three bridges, five footbridges, six sluice gate structures, and 164 fish pond gates.
These were all designed to strengthen the flood control interventions and uplift the local infrastructure in the region, Bonoan added.
Marcos and Bonoan were joined by House Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez, Korean Ambassador to the Philippines Lee Sang-Hwa, Governor Dennis G. Pineda, fourth District Representative Anna York P. Bondoc and Representative Jorge Bustos of Patrol Partylist during the ceremony.