Posted on Tuesday, January 28, 2003

Government must heed 
lessons from Laguna Lake dike project 

By Patricia L. Adversario, Senior Reporter

Last of two parts

Farmer Macario Patawaran glares at the cranes scraping up mounds of earth across the river where engineers are building a catch basin.

The artificial pond will hold floodwaters for one of the four pumping stations that is part of the P3.3-billion lakeshore road dike being built from Taguig to the Mangahan Floodway.

The 53-year-old farmer from Bgy. Wawa, Taguig, will have to move out soon because the dike will cut through his patch of floodplain. A two-hectare lot behind his shack lies idle. For 25 years, he has tilled it and planted rice, vegetables, and melons.

He says he hopes the government pays him soon so he can go back to Bulacan and find a piece of land to plant again. “But I won’t move here until they pay me. They’d have to shoot me first.”

His story and those who share his similar fate hangs on hope that the government would stop the construction of the dike. But that same hope means that five towns behind him will be flooded for months when the rains come.

His story, however, provides lessons to government on how it could implement development projects without running over the concerns of those displaced by “development.”

“There’s a need to widen the view beyond this linear way of thinking that tends to forget that there are people whose lives will be displaced by structures,” said Dr. Tolentino B. Moya from the UP School of Environmental Science and Management or SESAM in Los Baños.

Environmental experts like him advocate the need to involve the people who will be affected by development projects. “When people perceive that they do not matter, this nurtures mistrust toward public institutions that promote their well-being,” said Moya.

The Laguna Lake Development Authority or LLDA has taken up the challenge and is drawing lessons from the delays in the lakeshore dike for its own polder dike project. The LLDA plans to build an 800-hectare polder dike in offshore Muntinlupa. The proposed reservoir will supply Metro Manila 300 million liters of water a day.

“Monitoring of the project on the ground should be continuous,” said Alicia E. Bongco, project coordinator of the LLDA’s Sustainable Development of the Laguna de Bay Environment. “Prior to the construction of the lakeshore dike, a lot of things were happening, but these were not monitored.”

Based on the census the Depart­ment of Public Works and High­ways made in 1998, there were only 280 families that would be affected by the construction. The number has surged to 2,000 families as of last count, with most of them living on the floodplain of Lupang Arenda in Taytay and the Manga­han Floodway.

For any project, a major discus­sion point should not only be the source of its funds, but how many will be affected and what are their concerns, said Bongco.

“We need to involve the stakeholders in the decision process. We learn from them and they learn from us. It’s a two-way process. Their inputs should be considered. If they’re not acceptable, government has to explain,” said Bongco.

As environmentalist Moyo puts it: “Let’s do it with the right process, instead of government insisting that we make the process right.”

Social acceptability means the community has been fully informed about the project, said Julian D. Amador, director of the Environ­mental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

 “We inform the community about the project and the people make their decision based on the information we give them,” he said. But what if the people question the information that the project will benefit them?

“If the people don’t want the dike, the EMB will review the project,” said Amador. “We will look into the technical aspects and decide if the issues are valid. If the issues are not valid, or politics has colored their position, we make our decision. This cannot be an endless process.”

On assertions by SESAM experts that the environment impact assessment or EIA was incomplete because it did not study the impact on the adjoining towns, Amador said “these specific issues should have been raised during the review of the EIA. Why raise them after 10 years? Otherwise, the credibility of the government will be in question,” he said.

While he supports the formation of a monitoring team to look into the people’s complaints, the social acceptability requirement is a done thing.

“Natapos na ‘yon (That’s done). The issue is some farmers will be affected, so we will look into it. If we open all the issues, we will have to start again. A previous administration issues the ECC, then a group later questions it. When will this end? Where is the credibility of the ECC? The project is not only for a few people,” said Amador.

As far as engineering details were concerned, “everything was well considered in this project,” said Rodrigo I. Delos Reyes, DPWH’s project manager for the road dike. “Previous DENR requirements also did not require exhaustive consultations.”

Not all who are resisting the dike are legitimate residents, added Reyes. In some areas, he said settlers have swarmed “overnight” hoping to claim resettlement benefits.

He relates how DPWH paid an informal settler who was living on the Mangahan Floodway to pull out her house from the area. The following day, the settler refused to budge unless she was paid more for her pigs and a pigpen that had materialized overnight.

“They’re not even supposed to live there,” he said. According to the LLDA, areas below the 12.5-meter water level are part of the lake and, therefore, not fit for habitation.

“We need to apply the law, otherwise, government will be subject to economic sabotage caused by abuses of illegal settlers,” said Reyes.

Alternatives

Still, bowing to pressure from various groups that have organized themselves against the dike, the government in April 2002 agreed to temporarily stop the construc­tion in Taytay and Pasig. The DPWH also commissioned a study to look into various alternatives that would address the concerns of those affected.

The National Hydraulic Rese­arch Center or NHRC last week presented to the DPWH at least eight alternatives that would protect the residents in the areas outside the dike.

Since construction of the dike is ongoing in Taguig, alternatives for this section focused on building three polder dikes that would enclose the areas not protected by the lakeshore dike. Total cost for this scheme is P1.02 billion.

For the Taytay section of the dike which extends from Napindan Bridge to the Mangahan Floodway, the residents, who are mostly informal settlers, want the dike to be realigned to protect the Lupang Arenda floodplain.

There are six alternatives being considered for the Taytay section. These include realigning the dike to protect Lupang Arenda or by building more polder dikes. The cost for each of these six alternatives ranges from P930 million to P1.1 billion.

The NHRC is still evaluating the alternatives and will rank them based on the benefits over cost, taking into account various socio-economic, environmental and engineering factors.

Government sources said the DPWH is inclined to build the dike first and proceed later with the alternative structures for areas that lie outside the dike.

There is no guarantee that these additional structures will be built as funding has yet to be available. Each alternative that is being considered will also require a new environmental compliance certi­ficate or ECC.

The lakeshore dike is funded by the Japanese government as part of the 21st Yen Loan Package obtained in March 1997. These funds cannot be used for the additional structures, said Reyes.

Because of the long process involved, these additional struc­tures may have to wait, said Dr. Leonardo Q. Liongson, director of the National Hydraulic Research Center.

While the completion of the lakeshore dike does not hinge on the alternative plans being proposed for the Taguig to Napindan section, it may be a different story for Taytay.

Taytay residents want the dike to be realigned and if the government agrees to realign, that portion of the dike from Napindan to the Mangahan Floodway could be dropped until funding is secured. Until then, the Taytay area will be open to flooding, said Liongson.

“It’s the government’s call. The study could be used to reinforce what the government really wants to do and perhaps, convince the people. But we hope that with the study, both government and the residents will make a better decision or work out an acceptable compromise,” he added.

First Part