Reclamation, not flood control

Apart from substandard and nonexistent flood control projects, of which some of the ghost projects are even funded year after year, another dimension in this continually growing scandal has emerged.

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An official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources told the Senate finance committee yesterday that a flood control project in Laguna de Bay is actually a reclamation project, which is supposed to be prohibited in the lake and could actually be exacerbating flooding in the lakeside communities.

DENR Undersecretary for Integrated Environmental Science Carlos Primo David also said that in other parts of the country, dikes were built in areas where the structures either did not serve their intended purpose of flood mitigation, or even aggravated flooding.