Member of Bangsamoro Transition Authority Paliament (BTA) Atty. Ishak Mastura appealed to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to revive and implement the long-delayed P39 billion China-funded Ambal-Simuay River and Rio Grande de Mindanao Flood Control Project.

Mastura believes this will help prevent another devastation in the province from incoming typhoons following Severe Tropical Storm "Paeng's" devastation in BARMM, which left 64 people dead, 45 injured, and 13 missing due to a landslide.

More than 219,015 families or 1,091,801 individuals were also affected by massive flooding after rivers overflowed. Simuay River dike was crumbled and destroyed due to the heavy rains, and swept away the barriers. Paeng's onslaught also caused substantial damage to infrastructure, crops, and livelihood.

• 'Nagulat ang communities': Why tragedy struck Maguindanao during Paeng's onslaught

The government approved the P39 billion flood control project for Official Development Assistance funding in 2018 during the administration of then-President Rodrigo Duterte.

The lawmaker said it's high time to implement the Ambal -Simuay River Flood Control Project.

"The Simuay-Ambal River Flood Control Project has been in the planning stages for decades and is now ready for implementation.Except that the national Government was not able to sign an agreement with China on the project's funding, even though DPWH National already awarded the bidding for the project's design on September 2020," said Mastura.

He said climate change had made the flood control project even more urgent since climate change had brought more typhoons to Central Mindanao when it used to be considered typhoon free.

"The fear of the residents of Sultan Kudarat and Sultan Mastura Municipalities in Maguindanao del Norte, including the City of Cotabato, is that the destruction of the dike and the embankment of the Simuay River will lead to more floods. The river connects to its tributary Ambal River in the highlands of Barira, Buldon, and Matanog Municipalities in Maguindanao del Norte.

We hope President Marcos can continue with the flood control project by completing the funding arrangement with the Chinese Government or award the project from new Official Development Assistance, but that would probably entail more delays", added Mastura.

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) plans to construct the Ambal-Simuay River and Rio Grande de Mindanao River Flood Control Scheme in Maguindanao. The project involves the construction of a flood control and river protection scheme. It includes the construction of dikes, floodgates, channel dredging, reed beds, bridges, culverts, weirs, and related infrastructure.

The Ambal-Simuay River Component involves river widening and the construction of parallel dikes along the river to the cut-off channel.

The construction also includes a new channel with a dike-to-dike width of 250m; dredging and excavation of approximately 2.87 million m3 of materials to achieve the design river width, covering a total length of 11.2Km; and construction of an 11.6Km dike and a 9.1Km dike along the left and right banks respectively.

The Rio Grande de Mindanao Component, on the other hand, involves channel dredging and construction of dikes, retaining walls, and floodgates.

It also includes dredging works covering a total length of 6.1Km and an estimated volume of 7.87 million m3 of dredged materials, construction of the dikes and retaining walls with full size of 25Km, and Installation of floodgates at every entrance or exit of the creeks connected to Rio Grande de Mindanao with 23 flap gates.

On June 19, 2017, the project was forwarded to the Department of Finance (DoF) for onward transmittal to the Chinese Government.

On August 18, 2017, DPWH requested funding support to conduct detailed engineering design and development of the project.

On March 8, 2018, The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board's Investment Coordination Committee-Cabinet Committee (ICC-Cabcom) approved the project funding. On April 25, 2018, NEDA Board approved the project.

On June 6, 2018, the request to secure loan financing for the project was conveyed by the Philippine Government to the Chinese Government. Department of Finance was expected to sign Development Assistance (ODA) loans and grants agreement with the Chinese Government in November 2018.

Construction was supposed to commence in the second quarter of 2019 and to be completed in 2025. On September 11, 2020, a notice of award to Power Construction Corp. of China, Ltd. was given by the DPWH for Contract Package 1 for the Design and Build of the Flood Control Project for P10,108,742,345.19. —Report by Lerio Bompat

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