Blame the high tide

Navotas Mayor Tobias Reynald "Toby" Tiangco yesterday issued a disclaimer taking exception to reports that the flooding in this coastal town is getting worse even as he blamed the unusual high tides for giving the townsfolk a difficult time.

Tiangco issued the disclaimer following reports of flooding in Camanava, of which Navotas is a part, is deteriorating further.

"On the contrary, the flood situation in Navotas has turned even far better than before. Far from it, the usual floodwaters induced by heavy rains, and worsened by the high tide, have, in fact, been mitigated by measures we have long initiated on our own," Tiangco said.

The mayor was referring to flood-mitigating facilities put up by the local government in Barangays Tanza and Bangkulasi which he started in his first term as chief town executive. Flood control is one of the priority projects in Tiangco’s list.

"Navotas cannot wait for another four or more years yet for the construction of the mega-flood control project. We cannot allow the floods to continue assaulting our lives with impunity so we are doing the best we can on our own," Tiangco said.

On its own, the local government has set up several pumping stations and dikes in these two most low-lying barangays of the town and more are to follow. Tiangco, who ran unopposed in the last elections and is on his second term, has led his men in improving the town’s aging and damaged drainage systems. The clearing of riverbanks is a whole year operation tied up with the town’s cleanliness program, the engineering office said.

"Navotas’ flood control program, though admittedly limited, has started to pay off as some parts of the town that used to be flooded have been taken out of the problem list," Tiangco said.

He, however, put the blame, particularly in the recently reported flooding, on the "unusually increasing levels of high tides" being experienced in recent times. It could not be immediately confirmed if this was what environmentalists say as one of the effects of global warming.

Tiangco also mentioned the shell-paced work on the Camanava Flood Control Project, allegedly the final solution to the flooding not only in Navotas but in the whole of the Camanava area.

The multibillion project, set for completion by 2007, has been hobbled by several delays despite several groundbreaking rites announced by government officials in the last six years or so. It has also added one more stumbling block to the list, the latest of which has been the alleged lack of funds for the acquisition of right-of-way.