Cebu City dad sees need to work on drainage masterplan to prevent flooding, landslides

Sitios Tambis and Lutaw-lutaw suffered an 8 feet deep flood following heavy downpour on Tuesday evening. | Photo Courtesy of CDRRMO

CEBU CITY, Philippines –For Cebu City Councilor Jerry Guardo, the landslides and flooding here due to the heavy downpour on Tuesday night, September 15, 2020, is a wake-up call for agencies to work on the projects needed to prevent such calamities from happening again.

Guardo, who is the chairperson of the City Council’s committee on infrastructure, is urging the city’s executive department to fast-track the implementation of the drainage masterplan that has remained unrealized 15 years after it was proposed in 2005.

The flooding in Barangay Tisa and  the landslide in Barangay Talamban were caused by a poorly planned drainage in those respective areas. This caused the rise in floodwater and the erosion of the soil, respectively.

Guardo will be seeking the support of the City Council to urge the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the city’s Engineering and Public Works to make the long-awaited drainage masterplan a reality.

“A little rain and it already floods. I think we really need more manpower, reinforcement, then there must be an urgency [in the] implementation of our anti-flood project,” said Guardo.

Anti-disaster projects

As for landslide-prone barangays, Guardo urged the barangays to push for the request for budgets for disaster preparedness like the building of retaining wall and setting up preventive measures against landslides.

Guardo believes there is an urgency for these anti-disaster projects because the country has now entered the rainy season, wherein typhoons are frequent.

If a monsoon can do damage, the councilor fears a typhoon may take lives if the city is not prepared for it.

Cebu City evacuated 31 families and over 70 individuals in just one day due to heavy downpour over a strengthened southwest monsoon on Tuesday evening.

As of 6:30 p.m. of Wednesday, September 16, 2020, five separate landslides have occurred with houses damaged and roads blocked due to soil erosion.

Read: Barangays Kalunasan, Lahug monitoring mountainsides following landslides

Read: 68 Cebu City residents displaced by landslides that hit Tuesday night

Read: Another landslide destroys properties in Cebu City

A total of 10 houses were destroyed or damaged from Barangays Talamban, Kanulasan, and Guadalupe; a motorcycle was damaged in Barangay Busay; and, a road has become impassable in Barangay Lahug because of the landslides.

Two sitios in Barangay Tisa suffered a flood that reached 8 feet deep and at least four families needed to be evacuated.

Although no one was injured in any of these incidents, Guardo believes projects that should have been implemented a long time ago must be implemented now to prevent similar incidents from happening again. /bmjo