CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Philippines—A river that brought floods to a Zambales town has changed course and is now starting to swallow populated areas, the province’s governor said.
Zambales Gov. Amor Deloso said to keep the river from doing further damage, at least P175 million is needed to restore the Bucao Dike, the only structure that kept the river from swallowing villages but which was made only of soil.
Deloso did not say if restoring the dike meant keeping it made of soil and if that would cost P175 million.
Heavy rains brought by Typhoon “Kiko” on Thursday caused the dike to burst open and flood at least 10 villages.
Deloso said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, after an inspection on Monday, had committed to help scout for funds.
The provincial board of Zambales declared the province under a state of calamity following the floods.
Deloso said Ms Arroyo ordered the National Housing Authority to proceed with a massive low-cost housing project for 4,000 displaced families.
The units will cost P70,000 each, but the terms of payment or ownership are not yet clear.
Deloso said the new settlement will be in an upland area called Mayamban in Barangay San Juan.
“It is seen to be risky living in lower Botolan now because the [Bucao River] has changed course. The water flows through the villages instead of the regular channel. [The water] carried mud from the slopes [of Mt. Pinatubo],” he said.
The Bucao River is where the Balin-Baquero and Baquilan Rivers drain from Mt. Pinatubo to the South China Sea.
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Administrator Armand Arreza said the SBMA’s emergency response team and some medical staff will stay in Botolan to help evacuees.
The SBMA team has set up an evacuation command post at the Porac Elementary School in Botolan.
Two doctors and a group of nurses, working on 12-hour shifts, were stationed at the command post to augment the medical team sent by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Deloso said the provincial government is working to reunite families separated by the calamity.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) has yet to issue an advisory on the volume of pyroclastic materials left on the Zambales side of Mt. Pinatubo’s slopes after the 1991 eruption.
In 2000, the Phivolcs and the Department of Public Works and Highways built a canal on the 3-km crater-lake of the volcano to release water impounded there and prevent it from triggering an avalanche of lahar during rains on Botolan.