Thursday, June 07, 2007 So: Drainage woes By Michelle P. So Caught in the Net
THERE is not much comfort in rain these days. It not just brings flood in low-lying areas but also monstrous traffic jams.
Flooded streets are common in many parts of the country; even Baguio, despite its being highly placed in the mountains, gets flooded too. Street floods in Cebu City are bad enough, but wait till you see the ones in downtown Davao City.
Then you can say that Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña’s idea to build a river right in the middle of the road may not be preposterous at all.
When the streets near Davao’s Victoria Plaza, especially Torres St., get rain-flooded, the water can rise to as much as two feet. Two feet would be about thigh-level if you have short legs and knee-level if you have long legs. I have yet to make the conversion for midgets and Yao Ming.
During downpours, the streets of downtown Davao turn into shallow rivers.
When the rains stop, the water takes its time to subside, seemingly enjoying the sight of cars conking out in the middle of the road. In other parts of the city, flashfloods have destroyed six bridges and hampered production operations of many agribusinesses.
Davao’s drainage system is as problematic as that of Cebu City. It’s nearing obsolescence considering the city’s fast growth. Responding to the problem, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has readied a P400-million drainage master plan that will require unclogging canals and drainage channels. He’s still looking for funds for the project.
In Cebu City, Mayor Tomas Osmeña has yet to put his idea of “a new technology” into a formal document. The technology, as Osmeña described it during a press conference last week, will entail creating “rivers” in the middle of existing roads.
The middle part of the road will be dug up a few feet deep and several feet long, forming a V-shaped ditch. A huge single-culvert drainage line will be installed in the ditch that will have some link to other culverts. Once this new system is installed, Cebu City can say goodbye to flooded streets during downpours.
Osmeña mentioned Osmeña Blvd., Gen. Maxilom Ave. and Juan Luna Ave. as pilot areas for the “street rivers.” These are Cebu City’s primary roads where traffic is dense.
I’ve always marveled at the ideas Osmeña comes up with. I’ve been told that he reads up a lot on new technology and likes to gauge the public’s reaction but not necessarily take their side. I tried to Google this idea but couldn’t find any link that fits the description of the technology.
Anyway, Davao can use this kind of technology because its flashfloods are worse than ours.
But if this idea materializes in Cebu City, there’s one city that cannot copy this.
And that’s Baguio where the streets are narrow and rolling. Baguio, with its huge human traffic during the summer months, has yet to effectively solve its drainage problem.
Until I was caught in one myself in Magsaysay Road (I think this was the area) during a rainy visit, I never thought street floods could go up. If it’s any comfort at all, the street floods in Baguio are not as bad as the ones in Cebu and Davao and the water subsides easily. Some caution though: the rain in Baguio can freeze you enough to make your teeth chatter.
The cause of Baguio’s street floods? A poor drainage system that is aggravated by a growing residential and transient population that is finding it difficult to dump its domestic garbage.
