President Marcos has instructed the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to integrate water conservation into its flood control and management projects to ensure that flood water can be reutilized for irrigation, water supply, and power generation, Secretary Manuel Bonoan said on Tuesday, May 7.
President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. presides over a sectoral meeting on Natural Resources Development Transparency Strategy in Malacañang on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (Photo from the Presidential Communications Office via Facebook)
In a Palace press briefing after his sectoral meeting with the President, the DPWH chief divulged that one of the topics discussed was how not to waste the flood collected.
“The President asked me that, you know, I think we have to integrate our flood control management programs with the other sectors so that the water that we manage in the flood control do not go to the sea indirectly and to the extent possible that we have to conserve and utilize it for the other purposes like for irrigation, water supply and power if necessary,” Bonoan said.
When asked by Marcos where the water will go from the flood control projects, the official answered him that it will be coursed through the sea.
The President, however, stressed that the flood water needs to be conserved and reused for other purposes.
“So, this is a direct instruction of the President to me that we have to integrate all these components in the… particularly in the major projects, flood control projects of the department we’ve been undertaking,” the official said.
The agency will be coordinating with the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) on its flood control projects that have to be integrated with water conservation facilities.
According to Bonoan, the DPWH has an allocation of P300 billion this year for locally-funded and foreign-assisted flood control projects in the whole country.
“I think this is a good source of what the President calls the integrated water resource management program for irrigation, water supply, and the power if necessary,” he said.
Palace press briefer Daphne Oseña-Paez added that the Marcos administration already completed 4,700 flood control projects from July 2022 to 2024. There are also 4,200 ongoing projects, including big-ticket projects.