WHAT is the difference between a storm drain and a sewer? The sanitary sewer is a system of underground pipes that carries sewage from bathrooms, sinks, kitchens, and other plumbing components to a waste water treatment plant where it is filtered, treated and discharged. The storm sewer is a system designed to carry rainfall runoff and other drainage.
Storm Drainage
Cagayan de Oro is fast becoming a city of filthy and silty pools, ponds and rivers on the streets. If we cannot think that we can solve this problem, perhaps we can think of buying motorboats and canoes to ride on every time it rains.
Day in and day out, month after month, and year after year, Cagayan de Oro has been suffering and oppressed from streets converted into pools and rivers from rain waters, most prominent among which are the Lapasan Area along USTP and Lim Ket Kai, Bulua highway near Kauswagan, Carmen, Bulua near Patag, Burgos Sts, Camaman-an near Maria Reyna Hospital and many more. The city is like a bowl draining from the mountains which are bald and empty of sponges of trees and forest reserves long destroyed by decades of neglect via destructive logging, mining and even quarrying. Thus, I discussed in Plague Series #3 that the first solution to our flooding problems is landscape restoration (integrated food and timber forestry with livestock).
Yet, even with massive landscape restoration, downtown CDO which is practically covered with asphalt and cement on the ground, would still need what has been missing for decades. During the incumbency of the late Mayor Pablo Magtajas, floods on the streets were not that heard of. That was when malls and high rises were not the order of the day and when the population was only about 200 thousand. During the time of Mayor Vicente Emano, malls begin to sprout along Recto Avenue near Gaisano. During Mayor Oscar Moreno, Lim Ket Kai Center was expanded. SM came in. The population grew to over a million where many live in congested homes almost everywhere behind these big buildings and malls. Despite the massive construction boom, nobody sees serious government efforts of excavations constructing storm drainage to accommodate the exit of rainfall or even kitchen waste in buildings and shanties.
Even during hot sunny days, you can notice waters flooding the streets along Nazareth going to the Cogon Market and many others like the corner near the Carmen elementary school. I even met an accident near that school sometime in 2001 when my motorcycle simply slid down from such slippery street. Obviously, the absence of big and small canals and drainage everywhere in the city has been neglected for almost 30 years.
I was observing the drainage in Vancouver, Canada and I realized how really deep (about 10-15 feet) are the storm and sewage drainage in other cities worldwide. The same can be observed in New York. In fact, the underground trains of New York city would not have been that functional without the appropriate drainage systems. Lately, I asked what they are doing near our residence in Canada and I was informed that they are into constructing separate storm and sewerage drainage canals deep underground using huge culverts. They said that the system used to be combined. The City has its own Engineering department who operates the same, investing heavily on heavy equipment, construction materials and regular staff. They too, are maintaining the system on a day to day basis forming different teams spread in different parts of the city. The job is not a measure to mitigate but to simply maintain adequate services. Thus, while huge forests and trees abound the landscape on mountains, parks and even city sidewalks, nobody sees an open canal filled up with trash nor mud of filthy water.
Yet, we claim to be awarded as the most livable and resilient city in the country and flaunt our awards and recognition despite the absence of these kind of infrastructure well behind for over a hundred years. We even want to see a glitter of hope that our local officials would mention the problem but we are muted and numbed as if this thing has no more hope of being solved.
What the city can do is to do the same by creating an Engineering team and a budget for equipment, construction materials, Engineers, planners and staff to handle the problem. I estimate a P1B may be needed in initial soft loans to purchase heavy equipment, construction materials and staff requirements to do so and about P100-P150M a year to pay off and maintain the same on a regular basis. We could vary in the cost estimates but we need political will and a vision to make the necessary adjustments amidst climate change and recurring typhoons. The best initial step therefore is start serious discussions, cost estimates and proper planning so that this will become realized.