BLAME IT ON GARBAGE

Over half-a-billion pesos in drainage improvement projects were undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Cebu city and province in the past two years but mere hours of steady rain still flooded and paralyzed most of Metro Cebu last Friday.

The culprits, according to officials, were improper garbage disposal, clogging drainage systems and canals; and informal settlers blocking creeks and rivers.

The evidence, they said, were the piles of garbage left on city streets and near water bodies when the floods subsided. In some areas, like A.S. Fortuna Street in Mandaue City, flood water had not yet subsided, as of yesterday.

DPWH records, posted on its website, however showed that the construction and rehabilitation of a flood control system along A.S. Fortuna Street has been completed, costing the government P83.7 million.

The project cost was part of the P516.4 million that was spent by the DPWH for seven drainage projects in Cebu between 2015 and 2016.

Engineer Suzette Nwannaka of the DPWH 6th Engineering District, however, said garbage, especially plastic materials, obstructed waterways causing them to overflow.

She also explained that the problem in the A.S. Fortuna drainage system was that waterways pass through private properties and an informal settlers community before reaching Oril creek.

“The floodwater carried a lot of garbage that blocked the manhole inlets (built by DPWH),” she said.

This finding prompted Mandaue City Mayor Gabriel Luis Quisumbing to announce yesterday that the 2010 ordinance that prohibits the use of plastic bags in the city would be immediately implemented after a week-long information drive.

“I humbly ask for cooperation and understanding as we implement these measures. I am convinced these are for the greater good,” Quisimbing said in an announcement on the City Public Information Office Facebook page, posted soon after he met yesterday with members of his crisis management team composed of City Hall department heads.

The ‘no plastic bag’ ordinance requires all establishments in the city to use only recyclable or paper bags. Violators will be fined P500 or face five days in prison. The City Legal Office and the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro) were tasked to train barangay tanods to implement the ordinance, Quisumbing said.

Quisumbing also ordered the dredging of the drainage systems.

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, for his part, said he would revive his proposal to build an underground cistern, using the Mambaling channel as an outfall complete with a pumping system.

“Majority of Tagunol floodwaters drain to Mambaling so this will help with our flooding immensely,” he said yesterday.

He said he would also follow up with DPWH the construction of an underpass or water catchment on N. Bacalso St., as well as the Tagunol flood control project which he proposed in 2012 when he was the representative of the city’s south district. The project was approved by DPWH but was cancelled by then mayor Michael Rama, he said.

According to Osmeña, the Commission on Audit has just announced that the city government had ran a budget deficit of about P6 billion in 2015, “but no excuses, I will find the funding and see these (flood control) projects done,” he said.

In the meantime, Osmena also urged the public to be mindful of their garbage so that it would not clog drainage pipes or manholes.

Emergency power

Meanwhile, Donato Busa, outgoing president of the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), meanwhile suggested that President Rodrigo Duterte should be given emergency powers to address Metro Cebu’s flooding problem, particularly to ensure the removal of establishments and informal settlers in areas that block waterways.

He said that if President Duterte could be vested with the emergency power to solve the traffic problem of Metro Manila, there should be no reason that he could be given the same power to address Metro Cebu’s flooding and traffic problems.

President Duterte, he said, could in turn delegate mayors like Osmeña and Quisumbing to act swiftly in solving flooding problem without any impediments.

He recalled that when then Mandaue City mayor Jonas Cortes started to remove illegal settlers from the Mandaue side of the Mahiga creek, there was a resistance from the informal settlers. Cortes, he said, found it difficult to deal with informal settlers and it would expectedly be harder for the city’s mayor if big establishments are involved.

Only a president granted with emergency power could resolve this issue, he added.

Rainfall

The Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone prevailing over the Visayas dumped about 65 millimeters of rain in Cebu last Friday, causing knee to waist-deep floods in many areas of the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Talisay that resulted in horrendous traffic jams and left hundreds of people stranded on the streets, malls and public transport terminals up to midnight.

Both the city governments of Cebu and Mandaue desployed buses and other vehicles to ferry the stranded commuters to their homes.

Three families were rescued from their flooded homes in Barangay Apas, Cebu City, while 14 other families in Barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City were rescued by members of city’s disaster risk reduction and management council (DRRMC) after the Mahiga creek overflowed and inundated homes in the area on Friday night.

Two minor landslides were also reported in the mountain barangays of Busay and Pulang Bato on Friday night.

“We are still thankful that there were no injuries or casualties reported,” said Nagiel Banacia, Cebu City’s information officer and head of Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (DRRMC).

Banacia said personnel from the city’s Department of Public Services were immediately sent to collect garbage and debris after the flooding subsided Friday night, as these could again block waterways if they remained uncollected.

Nwannaka said DPWH maintenance personnel conduct periodic cleanup of drainage systems along the national highways but the problem occurred when floodwater and garbage from subdivisions and interior sections of barangays would start to flow into DPWH-funded drainage systems.

She said they could not include barangays and subdivisions in their clean-up activities as they have no jurisdiction over those areas.

The projects

The DPWH in Central Visayas, meanwhile, reported that of the seven drainage projects it funded, four are 95-98 percent completed while three are still ongoing implementation.

The completed projects are the Hagnaya wharf road slope projection, drainage, sidewalk – P44.9 million; the Mactan Circumferential Road slope protection, drainage, sidewalk – P45.1 million; Cebu (City) Circumferential Road (Happy Valley Road) slope protection, drainage, sidewalk – P22.2 million; Mactan Circumferential Road slope protection, drainage, sidewalk – P45.5 million; Construction/rehabilitation of flood control system at the Sapangdaku River in Cebu City -P4.1 million; repair/rehabilitation of flood control system and the installation of steel sheet pile with coping and riprap at downstream of the Cebu International Ports bridge – P8.7 million; and the construction/rehabilitation of flood control system along A.S. Fortuna Street in Mandaue City – P83.7 million.

Projects nearing completion are M.L. Quezon St. slope protection, drainage, sidewalk project in Mandaue City -P36.8 million; N. Bacalso Avenue (Cebu City) slope protection, drainage, sidewalk project along the Cebu South Road -P45.5 million; A.C. Cortes Avenue slope protection, drainage, sidewalk project in Mandaue City – P44 million; and the Improvement/rehabilitation of flood control structure with dredging of bridge waterways along Mahiga Creek in Mandaue City – P39.6 million.

Ongoing projects are the construction of flood control structure along the terminal building access road in Lapu-Lapu City – P45.2 million; Cebu Circumferential Road (F. Llamas Road in Cebu City) slope protection, drainage, sidewalk project -P45.5 million; and the Construction and maintenance of flood control mitigation structure in San Nicolas Proper in Cebu City–P5.7 million.

TAGS: Cebu, Cebu City, drainage, flood, flooding, garbage, Mandaue City, Metro Cebu, rain