A FIVE-year-old boy died last week after he fell into a culvert while playing in the rain.
It was an accident that could have been prevented had the culvert, and the drainage system it was a part of, been checked regularly and the hole where the boy fell into covered before the rains came. That hole claimed the life of John Clark Ebua.
It took rescuers 27 hours to find his body a little over a kilometer away from where he fell in Exoville in Barangay Basak-Pardo, Cebu City. Councilor Dave Tumulak said Ebua’s body was found near the opening of the Tagunol Bridge in Basak-Pardo. Ebua must have drowned when he fell into the culvert.
The SunStar Cebu report on the incident said Basak-Pardo Barangay Captain Catalina Cabardo was unaware of the uncovered box culvert in the area. She said sitio leaders did not report it to her. She said, “Since we just assumed office, we haven’t anticipated yet that there are these kinds of culvert. We also haven’t received reports on it yet.”
She also said, “Last 2010, there was a request for that project, like self-help in the barangay, but maybe they weren’t able to pay that much attention to it.”
Barangay officials didn’t say how long the culvert had been uncovered. Years? Months? What is sure is that it was uncovered at the time the rain fell last Saturday. This incident raises the question of who is responsible for maintaining the culverts and who can be held liable for the boy’s death.
And even as the search for the boy continued, the culvert remained open and children were seen milling around that same hole where Ebua fell.
According to the “Local resource-based road maintenance in the Philippines – A Guide” published by the International Labor Organization, the local engineering office is to be informed when there is structural damage to the drainage system. The report (at www.ilo.org, then search for the document title) has an annex on defects of road shoulders, slope and canals or culverts.
It said heavy flooding could damage vulnerable parts of the drainage system, thus there is a need for routine maintenance and rehabilitation. The action to be taken is to “identify the damaged part of the drainage system and report this to the local engineering office for proper remediation.” Rehabilitation should be monitored to ensure compliance with standards of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
What happened in Barangay Basak-Pardo is a reflection of the malaise of road work not maintained. The accident can happen in some other barangay, to some other child.
The update on the incident Monday was that the culvert in Basak-Pardo was being repaired. Now the DPWH, local engineering office and the barangays might as well check their culverts and drainage systems for damage, whether due to aging, heavy flooding or misuse by residents, before the rains fall again.