Residents near the rivers in Pontevedra and Pan-ay in the province of Capiz are now less worried of water overflow during rainy season with the completion of two significant river controls in the said towns.
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Capiz First District Engineering Office (DEO) has completed the construction of Pontevedra River Control in Pontevedra town (upstream of Agbalo Bridge and Tico River Control (downstream) in Pan-ay town.
The construction of Pontevedra River Control, with the contract amount of P18.799 Million involves the construction of additional 228.80 lineal meters of concrete revetment wall resting on steel sheet piles along the Pontevedra River.
Also, the construction of P18.718 Million Tico River Control involves the construction of 132.40 lineal meters of concrete revetment wall resting on steel sheet piles along Pontevedra River that is connected to the main 152-kilometer Panay River.
The said river control systems are expected to mitigate the perennial flooding problems in the towns of Pontevedra and Pan-ay, which are considered as catch basins of Panay Island.
According to District Engineer Sanny Boy O. Oropel, the two (2) flood mitigation projects will benefit people in the areas, who had experienced flooding during rainy days, damaging their properties and livelihood.
“With these flood control structures, they can sleep soundly at night even if it’s raining, and not worried of volume of the water from the river that may reach and damage their houses,” Oropel said.
Assistant District Engineer Ethel B. Morales also said that in the past, roads in these areas were hardly passable during rainy days because the river water overflows to the roads.
Project Engineer Julius Abela added that massive flooding in the said areas, which was predictable before, particularly during the devastation of Typhoon “Yolanda” in 2013 may not happen again with the construction of these flood control structures.
Meantime, DPWH, Capiz 1st DEO is supervising the on-going improvement of Iloilo East Coast-Capiz Road Pan-ay section, which is also a flood-prone section.
In order to address the problem, the DPWH is upgrading the road elevation to prevent the highway from being submerged in floodwater during rainy days.