(Eagle News) — The government is eyeing to kick off the construction of the $500-million Metro Manila Flood Control Management Project this January.
In a statement, the Department of Finance said this was following the approval by the boards of the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank of the co-financing for the project.
Of the $500 million, the DOF said $207.603 million will come from the WB, “as approved by its board of executive directors on Sept. 28, 2017..”
“The AIIB will provide another $207.603 million, which was approved by its board of directors on Sept. 27, 2017,” the DOF said.
The DOF said the government will shoulder the remaining $84.794 million.
According to the agency, the first phase of the project includes the “rehabilitation of 36 pumping stations in Metro Manila and the construction of 20 new ones in Manila, Pasay, Pasig, Mandaluyong, San Juan, Caloocan, Valenzuela and Quezon City.”
“Many of Metro Manila’s existing pumping stations were built in the 1970s and have become inefficient and underperforming,” it said.
It added the project’s master plan proposed the reduction of “flooding from river systems that run through the metropolis by building a dam in the upper Marikina River catchment area in order to reduce peak river flows entering Metro Manila during typhoons and other extreme rainfall events.”
The project also aims to eliminate “long-term flooding in the flood plain of Laguna de Bay, to protect the population living along the shore against high water levels in the lake,” and improve urban drainage, among others.
The DOF said the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority “will implement the project in close coordination with local governments and key shelter agencies.”
The project is scheduled to be completed in 2024.