The video of Reporter’s Notebook about the flood control project at San Simon,

Pampanga was informative and interesting. The mentioned area was known as the catchment
basin of the Pampanga, for this reason a flood control project was implemented with a
specification of having a 300 meters long River Wall last November 2017 with a budget cost of
over P140,000,000. Unfortunately, two days before the completion date, 95 meters of the wall
collapsed.
According to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Region III, which
is the implementing agency, the wall collapsed because the surface below was saturated for the
reason that there was a leakage through the water pipe. Moreover, according to the contractor
they follow the instructions and are thoroughly reviewed, and they do not notice the water pipe.
Furthermore, the structural engineer interviewed on the video stated that the contractor and
original structural engineer should properly reviewed the project that there will be no obstruction
and should certainly eliminate the risk that problem may happen where I strongly agreed.
At first, I thought that looking at it from the top view, the riprap looks too steep to push
back hydrodynamic pressure and use only a sub-standard which indicates a poor project
budgeting and corruption is the issue. However, I also realized lack of knowledge and
understanding about the water flow and its components that should be considered was also the
problem and the importance of one of our lessons about hydrology which is the study of the
distribution and movement of water both on and below Earth’s surface. It is important to
understand how water interacts with its environment and the water cycle that needed emphasize
to the above scenario was the infiltration and percolation where the process that water enters the
soil and recharges the groundwater system. It is also an eye-opening video, especially to me as a
Civil Engineering student on how important hydrology is. It establishes the relation between
surface water and underground water resources and on-site drainage and seepage condition
before the commencement of any engineering construction. Most importantly, this made me
realize that it is important to properly review a project, for instance when it is connected to water
because there can be hydrological hazards that are seen in the video which are the road damage
and the negative effects to the residence mainly cause of the failure of the flood control
structures.