ILOILO City – Five years after it was ravaged by super typhoon “Yolanda” in November 2013 the fish port of Concepcion, Iloilo would finally be rehabilitated.
Construction would commence before 2018 is over or early next year, said Provincial Administrator Raul Banias.
The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) would be overseeing the rehabilitation. It was also the one which finalized the schematic design for the port’s rehabilitation.
Banias said the port rehabilitation had a budget of $6 million from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) as part of the Post-Yolanda Fishery Restoration Project.
Once completed, the new fish port is expected to provide adequate, quality and safe berthing of fishing vessels and improve the access to basic fish port services.
The fish port is also envisioned to make more efficient the fishery trading operations in Concepcion.
In a long run, according to Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr., the infrastructure should contribute to attaining inclusive growth that meets present and future needs towards sustainable fishery, raised the level of productivity, increased household income and local government unit revenues.
The rehabilitation would include the following:
* conversion of the existing wet market into a passenger terminal
* improvement of restaurants/stalls
* reclamation of a new fish port complex with total pavement area of 6,500 square meters
* construction of new wet market and causeway
The port’s schematic design was developed after hearing around 300 comments, suggestions and concerns from various sectors that would directly benefit from the project. The owners of restaurants were more concerned about their future business. For the fishermen, it was the capacity of the port to dock more boats than before.
Municipal and provincial officials, on the other hand, were concerned of how we could optimize the design to minimize the cost in running this facility. (With a report from Jezza Nepomoceno, Iloilo Capitol/PN)
