Rama wants summit, review of drainage master plan

School children of Manipis Elementary School walk for several kilometers to their home in Camp 5. The road construction was suspended following continued landslide.(CDN PHOTO/TONEE DESPOJO)

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said he wants to call for a drainage summit with stakeholders in the private and public sector in order to address the persistent flooding problems in the city and neighboring areas.

Rama said part of the summit consists of revisiting the city’s drainage master plan crafted in the early part of the last decade.

“We now have a lot of approaches, technology that is available,” Rama said. The Cebu City Council in its session last Wednesday approved P15 million worth of drainage projects within the city.

These projects were sourced from the 2012 P100 million lump sum appropriation for drainage projects in the city.

Contingency

Rama made the call as six landslides occurred in two barangays of Cebu City, injuring a woman and damaging a house.

Three families were evacuated during the heavy downpour that started 12 noon and ended at nearly 2 p.m. yesterday.

Minor flooding occurred in some roads of Cebu City’s southern district while a tree was also uprooted in Molave St. in Escario, resulting to heavy traffic.

Dave Tumulak, Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CCDRRMC) chairman, said the barangays were reminded to prepare contingency measures before the heavy downpour.

Tumulak said six minor landslides were reported in barangays Guadalupe and Sapangdaku. The affected areas were sitio Kanaas and Tipolo Ville in Guadalupe; and sitios Guinsaogon, Bangkal, Caimitohan and Lupa in Sapangdaku.

Evacuated

Felisa Alegado, 39, of sitio Lupa sustained bruises after a rock fell down from the mountain area, hitting her.

She was brought to Cebu City Medical Center.

Three families residing beside the Sapangdaku river near the barangay hall were also evacuated after a 10-footer container van fell to the river when the water rose during the downpour.

The empty container van owned by Helpmate Inc., a company that installed water pipes in the area, was placed beside the road. Tumulak said the fallen container van endangered three houses nearby, so he ordered the owner to take the van out from the river.

Tropical depression

Tumulak asked the public to be vigilant in case of heavy downpour, as the Visayas was affected by the low pressure area spotted in Virac Catanduanes area.

Lenoardo Samar, weather analyst of the state weather bureau Pagasa’s Mactan station, said two low pressure areas were spotted at Dagupan City and east of Virac, Catanduanes.

Samar said the low pressure area at Catanduanes will likely develop into a tropical depression at the northern tip of Luzon as it heads out of the Philippines.

Yesterday’s intermittent rains reached eight millimeters of water per hour. /With Correspondents Jhunnex Napallacan and Bjorn Tabanera and Gabriel C. Bonjoc

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