SAN NARCISO, Zambales, Philippines — Governor Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. ordered emergency work on the Maculcol megadike in this town to prevent flooding in riverside villages in the coming rainy season.

Ebdane inspected the dike here on Wednesday with Public Works district officer Hercules Manglicmot and Zambales provincial engineer Neil Farala after Typhoon Bebeng brought unusually heavy rainfall in the province.

“The good news is that the dikes we rehabilitated last year in Botolan, as well as in San Felipe, proved strong and stable, so we’re doing the same project here in San Narciso,” Ebdane told residents of Brgy. Namatacan here, who appealed for the immediate repair of the dike.

“We will be rehabilitating the dike to make it stronger, so that your community will be safe,” he added.

The project, which will cost about P5 million, will involve raising the height of the existing dike by about two meters, and replacing the sandbagged earth dike with gabions, which are modular wire mesh enclosures used for earth retention and flood control, Ebdane explained.

“The difference here is that in Zambales, we use the Ebdane technology — instead of filling the gabions with boulders, which are expensive, we fill them up with bags of sand mixed with cement,” Ebdane said.

“The resulting filling material is as solid as stone, only cheaper and faster to install,” he added.

Farala said the project will involve the rehabilitation of about more than one-kilometer length of dike from the village of Consuelo Sur in San Marcelino to Namatacan in this town.

Target completion of the rehabilitation work is within one month, he added.

Ebdane, who was Public Works Secretary before running for governor, said the rehabilitation work is supposed to be the responsibility of the DPWH, “but we’re initiating it as an emergency project due to the urgency of ensuring the safety of Zambales residents.”

“We have to make sure that nothing untoward will happen to Zambaleños,” Edbane said. “We might be spending millions for this, but what is at stake — the lives of our people — is priceless.”

The governor also said that the project will take advantage of the abundant sand in the area, which could be had for free. Meanwhile, other materials for the project like sacks, wire mesh and cement will be acquired on loan from local suppliers.