Ramos orders building of $745m 'superdyke'
PRESIDENT Fidel Ramos has ordered the Mount Pinatubo Commission and the Department of Public Works and Highways to start construction of a 2.5-billion peso (HK$745 million) 'superdyke' that will protect against volcanic mudflows from Mount Pinatubo.
The order comes amid a persistent clamour by the residents of Pampanga province to give them protection from the volcano, which has killed about 5,000 people and made millions homeless since it first erupted on April 2, 1991.
Mount Pinatubo was covered in 1.6 billion cubic metres of volcanic ash, triggering mudflows during every rainy season since 1991, killing a further 4,000 people and burying 21 out of 22 villages around the town of Bacalor plus about 174,000 hectares of agricultural land.
Mr Ramos has so far ordered the release of 900 million pesos to construct the first phase of the 21 kilometre-long armoured dyke on the banks of the Pasig-Potrero River, the main mudflow channel.
The Government previously built 22 check dams - boulders encased in chicken wire - to stem the mudflow, but all were damaged by mudslides. Pampanga Governor Lito Lapid said the first phase of the dyke would be nine kilometres long and two metres high and would protect the vital Manila-Subic Bay road - one of the nation's most vital economic supply routes - plus 57,000 people in 18 villages in Guagua, Lubao, San Isidro, Sta Rita and the Sasmuan area.
The construction of the dyke has been delayed because 1,000 households in Barangay San Isidro have refused to move to make way for construction.
There have also been squabbles between the Mount Pinatubo Commission and the public works department over how the dyke should be built.
