Flooding "to be solved" by yearend

CEBU, Philippines - If Cebu City engineers are to be believed, the constant flooding of streets in the city’s downtown area will be solved before the year ends.

Engr. June Nadine Sison of the Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW) said the City already allocated P5.9 million for the dredging of the so-called Estero Parian, the creek traversing under the various commercial establishments at the downtown area.

The creek starts from Legaspi St. within the interior portion between Colon and Manalili Sts. It then passes beneath the Colonade Mall, the Gaisano Main Store crossing D. Jakosalem St. beside The FREEMAN building before going to barangay Tinago.

But the dredging of the Estero Parian couldn’t easily be done unless the illegal structures constructed above the creek or within the three-meter easement zone will be destroyed to make it easy for the dredging machine to operate.

Guillermo “Dodong” Viola of the DEPW Flood Control Division said based on their study, they learned that the Estero Parian is already full of mud so there’s a need to desilt the whole stretch of the creek to solve the problem of flooding in downtown area.

Viola explained that because the creek is already full of mud, the floodwaters usually overflow into the road instead of going to the sea during rains.

It was also observed that the drainage systems installed in the various roads going to the creek have become the source of flooding in Manalili St.

“Imbis nga ang tubig gikan sa karsada adto mopaingon sa sapa, ang tubig nga gikan sa sapa mobugwak na hinoon ang tubig adto sa karsada,” he added. (Instead of the floodwater on the streets being emptied into the rivers, it is the water from the river that overflows into the streets.)

Assistant City Engr. Josefa Ylanan said the City will soon send notices to the operators of the business establishments concerned to require them to voluntarily remove their illegal structures or else, the City would do it.

The DEPW personnel already conducted an initial survey of the illegal structures in Estero Parian, but Ylanan failed to give statistics on the number of business establishments violating the law.

Mayor Michael Rama has vowed that if the concerned businessmen who constructed the illegal structures within the creek will not remove the obstruction, the city will be compelled to bring the matter before the court.

Sison, head of the DEPW’s construction division, said the city will soon award the dredging project to a contractor. The awarding of the project will no longer be subjected to rigid state audit procedures because the funds will be sourced from the calamity funds.

The city has been declared by the Cebu City Council under a state of calamity preparedness so that it can spend its calamity budget to attend to the problem of flooding by dredging creeks and clogged-up drainage systems.

Sison added that the city is now in the process of buying a “walking excavator” or mini-pay loader that can be used to dredge the creeks and esteros. — (FREEMAN)