The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is looking to secure financial and technical assistance from bilateral and multilateral development partners to roll-out more flood control and other climate projects, Public Works Secretary Manuel M. Bonoan said.
On the sidelines of a business matching session organized by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) last Friday, Sept. 13, Bonoan told reporters that the DPWH is focusing on the development of 18 major river basins across the country to stop perennial flooding in the aftermath of strong typhoons that pass through the Philippines.
"We need to address them now, because of the climate change phenomenon," he said.
Upon President Marcos' instructions, the DPWH also plans to build additional dams in the Sierra Madre mountain range to serve as rainwater storage and prevent flood water from spilling to Metro Manila and neighboring areas, Bonoan disclosed.
The DPWH chief said it helps that JICA, the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Washington-based World Bank can be tapped for official development assistance (ODA)—loans, grants and technical assistance—to the Philippines' climate risk mitigation and adaptation projects.
Bonoan noted that these development partners had already extended concessional financing to the Philippine government for earlier flood control projects. For instance, the World Bank and the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) are financing the $500-million (P28-billion) Metro Manila flood control project currently being jointly implemented by the DPWH and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA).
He added that JICA has been generously providing technical assistance grants to prepare projects before engaging funds for implementation.
For the part of JICA, its chief representative in the Philippines Takema Sakamoto told reporters in a separate interview that the Japanese aid agency is just awaiting government approvals to roll-out an improvement project for Davao River.
This is on top of ongoing flood control and river improvement projects in the Pasig and Marikina, Imus, Rio Grande, and Cagayan de Oro rivers, among others.
Sakamoto said JICA is currently preparing more than 10 candidate-projects for the Philippines, mainly infrastructure, for next year.
The JICA Philippines chief said Japan is committed to extend more "soft" or low-interest loans as well as technical cooperation to the Philippines, which recently belonged to the top three beneficiary-countries of the Japanese aid agency yearly.