The Negros Occidental provincial government has donated a dredger to Cadiz City, Mayor Salvador Escalante said today, February 2.
Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson and Escalante signed the deed of donation at the Governor’s Office at the Capitol in Bacolod City this morning.
Escalante said he had asked for the old dredger that had broken down and it has been in Cadiz City for two years already. Cadiz City had it repaired but it could not pay for the repairs until the donation of the dredger was made official, he added.
A Capitol press statement said “the dredger will be exclusively used for flood control purposes to mitigate flood occurrences in Cadiz City.
The donated property will also perform maintenance dredging operations in the commercial port and in the adjoining Hitalon River, to clear all the silt deposits that have accumulated due to the constant wave action of the Visayan Sea.”
The dredger can be borrowed by other LGUs but it will be used for the dredging of Cadiz rivers first, the mayor said.
Escalante said aside from the dredging of silted rivers, the city government also needs to prune its mangroves in flood-prone areas as they a blocking the exit of water during heavy rains.*