Mayor: demolish them all

A few minutes of heavy rain causes the water in Mahiga Creek to rise in this spot along F. Cabahug Street in Cebu City where settlers by the riverside walk across on an improvised foot bridge. (CDN FILE PHOTO)

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said he wants footbridges used by settlers in the Mahiga Creek demolished in the coming days.

The mayor ordered notices sent out to inform settlers and barangay captains in the Mandaue city side of the creek, to inform them of his plan to remove the links.

“Those footbridges have been causing a lot of trouble because that will only bring in more people by providing access to build and build and build. It’s not supposed to be there. It’s an added obstruction to waterways,” Rama said at a press conference.

His statement came after city officials and SM engineers inspected the creek in an early morning walk-through yesterday.

Officials seem more determined now to find solutions to urban flooding after a severe episode following the  Sept. 18 downpour which left half of Cebu city’s streets underwater, including areas that have never been flooded before like the Mambaling access road to the South Road Properties (SRP).

Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes has also been seeking a meeting with counterparts in Cebu City, after lamenting that Mandaue is a “receptacle” of rainwater flowing from Cebu city.

CLOGGED WITH TRASH

Mahiga Creek, a 5.2 kilometer waterway, is a vital passage that carries runoff from the mountains and drains into the sea.  It  passes through two highly urbanized cities of Cebu and Mandaue, where informal dwellers, including business establishments, have built structures on both sides of the creek, which is also clogged with trash.

Plans to clear the riverbanks and dredge the mouth of Mahiga have been announced off and on by officials over the years but the  creek’s condition remains basically the same.

SM Engineers, together with Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, City Engineer Jose Marie Poblete, City Planning  Officer Engr. Kenneth Carmelita Enriquez and the city’s disaster team walked along the

Mahiga Creek starting from the upstream before Gaisano Countrymall in Banilad until the mouth near the Cebu International Port.

“We wanted to have an engineering point of view of how we can solve or at least prevent flooding which gravely affects SM,” Poblete said.

They observed problems of constriction and backflow starts at the lower area in Banilad.

Parts of the creek are wide but other portions are more shallow due to silt.  The creek’s mouth is heavily silted, almost reaching the bridge.

NUISANCE

In a news conference yesterday, Rama said footbridges were a nuisance especially at the North Reclamation Area.

He instructed Raquel Arce, Prevention Restoration Order Beautification Enhancement (Probe) team chief, to send notices to  the settlers and affected barangay captains about Cebu City’s plan to demolish the footbridges.

Rama said the demolition should be done before he returns from his trip abroad.

The mayor left yesterday for Portugal for an official business and will be back a week later.

After the Sept. 18 street flooding, Rama said he would call a drainage summit with stakeholders in Cebu City but no date for the meeting has been set yet.

After this city level dialog, he said he will take it up with champions of the Mega Cebu 2050 vision in the Metro Cebu Development and Coordinating Board (MCDCB) where he is a co-chairman with businessman Roberto Aboitiz.

FURTHER STUDY

SM engineers, who flew to Cebu after Sept. 18’s widespread flooding, will be conducting further studies of the Mahiga Creek and what can be done to help.

Mayor Rama  phoned SM owner Henry Sy to seek his assistance after the knee-deep flooding at the Mambaling access road.

SRP manager Bu Varquez told the City Council in a special session a day after the downpour, that water from the construction site of SM Seaside City in SRP, which is built at a higher elevation, had flowed to the streets.

He said that SM’s drainage system was adequate for its own needs but not enough to cope with the unusual large volume of rain and would need larger culverts for water to flow out to the sea.

Mayor Rama is leaning on SM to assist in an engineering solution of the flooding.

He said the flooding should not only be the problem of the government but of everyone, and since SM has been suffering from it, they should also help.

During heavy rains longer than an hour, establishments in the North Reclamation Area, including SM City and Cebu Daily News building, end up with street floods.

No specific commitments were given by SM yet, said Poblete.

He said they would meet again next month with SM engineers from Manila to discuss proposals for Mahiga Creek.

Meanwhile, the city is preparing the Programs of Works and Estimates (POWE) for desilting and dredging projects worth P70 million for  the city’s rivers.

The P70 million amount was identified after the city declared a state of calamity after the Sept. 18 flooding, which affected the cities of Mandaue, Cebu, Lapu-Lapu and Talisay.

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