A flood control project locked in the middle of idle lands, another one costing half a million pesos per meter and several others that invite high waters during the rainy season.
These are some of the key findings that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) found in its monitoring of flood control projects from 2021 to 2025.
In the budget hearing of the controversy-riddled Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), DENR Undersecretary Carlos David said that the agency has been monitoring flood control projects.
The agency has so far classified their findings into three categories: validated, ghost projects, and maladaptive projects. Validated projects, or ones that are present within the community, take up a mere 23% of the DENR’s assessed projects. Ghost projects, or ones that are duplicated or incomplete, take the lion’s share at 42%.
More harm than help
However, it is the maladapted projects, which are 28% of the projects, that concerned David the most.
He used the Camiling River in Tarlac as an example. The flood control project is divided into eight phases for one river, the price ranging from P28.8 million to as high as P99 million. David said that there were overlaps between these projects, with one phase of the project only spanning a mere 200 meters. This has led the flood control project to cost P500,000 per linear meter.
Another flood control project in New Bataan, Davao De Oro showed that a dike built had actually constricted the flow of a meandering river, making the water run in a straight manner. This has made the flood water flow directly into the nearby town, rather than letting it scatter.
‘Every time we consort, block, divert or alter natural waterways, we change the velocity and volume of waterflow,’ David stressed.
Harmless. but useless
The DENR noted that not all maladapted projects caused harm-but they definitely did not help anyone.
In Bulacan-the hotbed of the flood control controversy-there were several flood control projects that would not have served the community.
For example, a dike was built in a bay in Malolos, Bulacan. The issue here is, the dike was built into the water, so it was not protecting anything at all.
In the same province, in Baliuag, the flood control project had the opposite problem: the dike was built in the middle of idle lands. David said that it was not protecting any vital assets at all.
No permits
DPWH Sec. Vince Dizon admitted that from the flood control projects that they have so far investigated, none had the proper building permits, nor did they have an Environmental Compliance Certificate.
‘Just to emphasize, for the projects that we have visited and investigated, no flood control had an ECC. None. Not one,’ Dizon said in a mix of English and Filipino.
The DPWH’ has been the focal point for a suspected multi-billion peso kickback scheme involving government officials and contractors. The funds are suspected of being funneled through flood control projects and other infrastructure developments.