A KALAHI MCA feature…
Mabini farmers tame
Tabunok floods with
300 meter river dike
Rey Anthony Chiu
MABINI, Bohol, July 29, 2012 (PIA) –Then, most farmers could only look helplessly as the floodwaters from the overflowing Tabunok River creep up and drown their rice crops.
Now, armed with the participatory assessment skills, plus an engineering inspiration, they have high hopes that their efforts give them a good fighting chance against the notorious floods that has claimed several lives here.
For most farmers, “tabunok” spells good harvest. Here, Tabunok is also fatal and destructive.
Tabunok, a local term for rich loam deposits left after a flood, is what most farmers here capitalize to produce the harvest in the more that 150 hectares of rice and prime farmlands.
The rich loam deposit, which the river brings, also causes the river to be called Tabunok.
Tabunok River partly assures people of good harvest when it brings in the rich soil during its flow. And when the water is just a bit too much, the flow also portends death and destruction, when the collected rainwater from the grazing grounds upriver converge to wash down Cogtong Bay, said Barangay Chairman Rodrigo Vallespin.
When that happens, he admits he could not sleep as he has to direct the barangay disaster council to effect the evacuations, knowing that the flooding may not only destroy crops.
When the floods come, it would be in a flash, he said adding that a school girl crossing the ankle deep stream down river was suddenly washed out to sea when the raging water tumbled down.
When the rains come at night, I could not sleep tight, knowing that down the village center, the water built up in the mountains could easily flood the ricefields and endanger the people.
To protect the barangay from the breaching of the river, the people in one participatory situational analysis identified a river control dike to guide the water’s flow and spare the barangay from the gush.
An 80 meter river dike funded by the barangay calamity fund proved to be one huge help then in 2008.
But during bigger rains, the water overflows before the wall, still filling the vast plains, shares Margarita Vallespin.
With several other concerns the barangay has to face, completely putting up the river dike as floodwater control was only a dream for the people. Until Makamasang Tugon (MT) came.
A fund granted by the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) to continue the government package of assistance for identified communities previously named Kalahi, the MT stirred the hope of the people of flood-prone San Isidro.
Having already identified the dike as a priority, the barangay tapped the sub-project fund for another 285 meters of flood control dike.
The fund grant is only a sub project, explains DSWD Regional Social Marketing Officer Simeon Remata III, as the primary project is training and mentoring communities to function on their own, driven by the development they earlier identified.
To make sure they get the most out of the funds, the Barangay Sub-Project Management Council decided to implement the project on their own, in a system DSWD called the community force account.
In fact, we made sure that the project is completed within a month, to let us be assured that the dike is in place before the rains come in July, chairman Vallespin, who also sits in the BSPMC admitted.
Implemented in February this year, the 285 meters flood control project even accomplished 15 meter more, Vallespin boasts.
Now snaking along the river path, the dike rises a good two feet above the plains, the approximately a feet above the usual flooding height, the community members attest.
Now with a dike that is designed to protect them and their fields, it is now up to the coming rainy season to prove if the taming of the river works.
It, however is not a problem for the barangay chairman who knows exactly what to do if that happens. (30)