Cebu City Councilor Jerry Guardo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Councilor Jerry Guardo is asking the city’s executive department to fund the construction of a water holding tank at Guadalupe Heights in Barangay Guadalupe in order to solve the persistent flooding in the area.
In his privilege speech during this week’s regular session in the City Council, Guardo noted that the project was first introduced in 2012, and a budget was even approved for such, but the project did not push through because of consent issues.
Guardo led the Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW) to make an ocular inspection of the Guadalupe Heights to come up with a feasible immediate and long term solution of the flooding problem.
“We have a series of meetings with Guadalupe Heights homeowners after their plight reached our office, and then we arrived with an agreement to let the city’s drainage project traverse inside their subdivision. This homeowner board resolution of consent dated April 30, 2021 was endorsed to this august body for information,” said Guardo.
A notable engineer and premier developer has provided a suggestion to Guardo and the DEPW to build a water holding tank with a waste filtration in Guadalajara street to divert and catch the volume run-off flood water from the upstream during heavy downpours.
According to the engineer, the tank will solve the flooding problem since the holding tank will detain the flood water for a moment before it will be released to the drainage system. This stored water in the holding tank can also be useful for plant dewatering and can be recycled through reverse osmosis and other uses.
The tank is planned to be constructed in a city-owned property or Lot no. 3(6306) with an area of 1,018 square meters so this can accommodate around 5,400 cubic meters of run-off water according to his schematic design.
The proposed tank has a depth of 5 meters or like a 2-story building and the upper surface of the tank can be utilized for parking or an open commercial space.
“Mr. Chairman, with this proposition, I was told and I believed that this will be the real answer to the solution to the problem perennial flooding in the area of Guadalupe which according to the residents they had been experiencing for about 20 years already,” said Guardo.
With this, the City Council has requested the DEPW to prepare a program of works and estimate (POWE) for the project in the City-owned property in Guadalajara Street, Barangay Guadalupe.
The Council has also requested the executive deprtment to negotiate with the private lot owners outside Guadalupe Heights for their consent in allowing drainage line to traverse in their properties.
Finally, the City Council has requested the DEPW together with the Barangay Guadalupe to locate the alleged existence of a 72-inch diameter culvert along Quijada Street for rehabilitation.
Guardo hopes that with the construction of a water holding tank, the flooding problem in the area will finally be solved.
/dbs
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