The City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office is trying to find solutions to lessen or prevent floods in flood-prone areas in Cebu City amid the start of the rainy season in Cebu.| CDN FILE PHOTO
CEBU CITY, Philippines — With the onset of the rainy season in Cebu, the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (CDRRMO) are getting ready to respond to any possibility of flooding and landslides.
Wesley Yñigo, CDRRMO operations chief, told CDN Digital that they would be meeting with the City Risk Reduction and Management Council (CRMMC) on June 17 to discuss preventive measures on how to reduce flooding in the lowlands and landslides in the uplands as the rainy season starts.
According to the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), that the rainy season had begun last June 14.
Read more: Rainy season here, but El Niño may last until November
With this, Yñigo said they would be focusing on the landslide-prone areas of Busay and other mountain barangays.
They would also check on the Trans-central Highway where slippery roads had resulted in major road accidents in the past.
He said it would be important to check the mountain areas because the soil there had been dry for four months and the rains might cause sudden softening of the ground that could result to either sinkholes or landslides.
He said they would put up danger sigsn in landslide-prone areas to warn residents and motorists passing these areas that the loose soil there could be dangerous when it would rain.
He also encouraged the residents in these areas to be vigilant and to report any loosening of the soil in the roadside cliffs so that massive landslides could be averted.
“They know the risks when they decided to live in the mountain areas, so I ask them to be vigilant and monitor their surroundings during the rainy season,” said Yñigo.
Aside from that, the CDRRMO will also be closely monitoring the city’s five major river systems and the residents living nearby for the possibility of a flash flood.
He said they would also be putting up signs in these flood-prone areas along riverbanks to warn the public about the risks of living near these rivers when it would rain.
The CDRRMO will also help address inland flooding in the city.
He said that they would coordinate with the City Engineering Office to discuss the declogging of drainage in the most flood-prone area in downtown Cebu City — Colon Street.
Read more: Motorists advised to avoid flooded streets in Cebu City
He said they would ask the City Engineering Office to declog and desilt the drainage in the area to prepare it for oncoming rains.
Yñigo said that they still had enough time to prepare because Pagasa predicted that the El Niño phenomenon would probably last until August or November.
He said because of this there would be lesser average rainfall volume for a while in Cebu.
According to Pagasa, until the El Niño would be over, the rains in Cebu would short and could be from moderate to heavy rains./dbs