P60M Heavy Equipment Boosts Olongapo Anti-Flood Program

Olongapo City’s anti-flood efforts got a boost with the recent procurement and arrival of six (6) brand new heavy equipment worth P60M.

The new equipment include an amphibious excavator, two 15-ton dump trucks, wheel loader, skid steer loader and a backhoe loader.

According to Mayor Rolen C. Paulino, when he took over city hall in 2013, the city had no heavy equipment in its inventory.

“We had no heavy equipment. That is why there were floods. And when the water subsides, we had problems in clearing the streets from mud,” Paulino said.

The floodings eventually led to a leptospirosis outbreak in the city in 2013, which recorded almost 600 cases and took the lives of 11 people, some of them from the Province of Bataan and Zambales.

The heavily-silted main river channel of Barangay Kalaklan up to Barangay Sta. Rita and Old Cabalan had been untouched for years and the main drainage system was also clogged. The combination led to the massive 2013 flooding in the city.

The only equipment left in the city was the now already unserviceable dredging machine that was ineffective and has limited capability.

“Aside being allegedly over-priced, the dredging machine cost the city some P89M. It was already a wreck so we tried to repair it but it worked for only a month and thereafter became totally unserviceablde,” Paulino said.

“Now the city has 6 brand-new heavy equipment costing only P60M. Versatile enough to desilt our rivers and water ways, these can even perform other services, a far cry from the ‘jurassic” dredging machine that is not suitable to Olongapo’s terrain and costs more than these new machines we purchased,” Paulino added.

To date the local government, with the help of the Department of Public Works and Highways, has been desilting the mouth of Kalaklan River which is the main water channel connecting the city’s waterways to the bay.

“With these 6 brand-new heavy equipment, we can desilt our water ways the whole year round and not have to contract out anything,” Paulino said.