Is claiming of accretion a common practice at Marikina river? (passing through Pasig City)

It is more fun criticizing

Rizal Philippines    |  September 30, 2014

                What is this backhoe doing?  Removing the accretion or fixing this?.  The river at this portion before the Rosario bridge has become narrower.

Reclaiming  the accretion at Marikina River?
From what I remember, Pasig river was a wide and deep and wide river.  It claimed a lot of lives from drowning. It could be at least 100 meters wide and more than 10 meters deep.  However this post recent photo essay suggests that it could be 50 or even 30 meters wide, and heavily silted.  No wonder, there is rapid flooding of its banks.  what happened to the rest of the river?