Science lacking in flood control projects

One clear diagnosis from this year's corruption scandal is the lack of science in planning and designing flood control projects, harming communities instead of protecting them during typhoons.

- By EJ MACABABBAD

Congressional hearings on anomalous flood control projects revealed a harsh truth: despite receiving P545 billion over the past three years, these projects were only used as a racketeering scheme.

"We discovered that the cause of the problems we face on flood control projects is a lack of proper planning," Vince Dizon, secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), said in October.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) cited some examples during a Senate budget hearing in October: a dike in Davao de Oro constricting the river, two uncoordinated dikes in Tarlac that merely transferred the flood risk from one area to another and a flood work along Laguna de Bay that turned out to be a reclamation project.

"The poorly situated projects, in my personal opinion, are more important, even compared to the ghost projects that we have been investigating," DENR Undersecretary Carlo Primo David said.

"Every time we constrict, block, divert or alter natural waterways, we change the velocity and volume of water flow," he added.

Renato Solidum Jr., secretary of the Department of Science and Technology, said the DOST has no communication with the DPWH regarding national projects.

"Based on my experience as director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, if projects emanated from the Japan International Cooperation Agency for eign projects - the DOST was involved, or at least Phivolcs and PAGASA (Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration) were. We're part of the steering committee," Solidum told The STAR.

"For domestic projects, none," he noted.