Short-term flooding solution for Sto. Tomas?

I got-wind of news that the proposed solution to the flooding in the town, as well as neighboring Minalin and City of San Fernando, was already done and cost only about Php 700,000.00 which was mostly for diesel fuel for the heavy machinery used to create a 1.1-kilometer channel diverting the water from Gugu River into the other channel — Potrero River which has already been silted. If they will redirect the water to Potrero River, this would then avoid the loading of the tail dike protecting Sto. Tomas, MInalin, and lower portions of the City of San Fernando.

The illustration below is from Normandy Canlas which shows the proposed channel, which has apparently been finished. Repair of the tail dike will be done once the budget from the provincial government has been released.

As an engineer, I see this as a short-term solution which would eventually fail once the channel itself will be silted as well. So is the tail dike. As a scientist, i know that flooding in the area will be inevitable as long as the floodplain is not allowed to get its portion of silt which will eventually elevate it and put the flood waters somewhere else. The adaptation that can be done towards this kind of natural phenomena is to create flood-free roads that are accessible for transport of people, goods, and relief.

Another would be to revive the original width of the rivers as desilting and dredging do little to alleviate floods. A river whose normal water level is at 5 meters will always try to keep it at 5 meters. No matter how deep you dig, you are only inviting more water from higher areas into your channel. Whereas a wider river will have an increased water capacity while maintaining the water level and does not try to collect the water from higher areas.

As for now, it is good that we have some little relief from the recent floods we had. And we made it through! Raise your head high, kabalen. Be proud that you survived another challenge! Taas-noo Tomasino!