THE Cebu City Council recently gets a reply from City Engineer Carmelita Enriquez on its request for a copy of the City’s drainage master plan. It said the Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW) blueprint was crafted in 2004 yet; much of its details became irrelevant in time. Enriquez recommends that the Council refer to the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) plan instead.
A redraft of the DEPW master plan takes time; the whole city could be drowning in floodwater by the time it churns out the fine print. So it’s rather practical, suggests Enriquez, that the city use the DPWH version.
The feasibility study was the handiwork of the DPWH Unified Project Management Office-Flood Control Management Cluster, with the Metro Cebu Development and Coordinating Board (MCDCB) and Woodfields Engineering Co. on board. It trained its eye on the causes of flooding in Metro Cebu and crafted measures to wash them away.
From what we know in 2017, the DPWH master plan would be shared with the local government units for implementation. Another more recent report said the DPWH is already set to implement the P23.5 billion infrastructure project to fight flooding in Metro Cebu beginning 2020 to 2022. The blueprint is now called the Metro Cebu Integrated Flood and Drainage System Master Plan. An official said the P23.5 billion forms part of the P44-billion master plan initiated by the MCDCB.
Under the “prioritization schedule,” some P4.6 billion will be spent for the anti-flooding and drainage projects in 2020. Another P11.9 billion in 2021, and P7.07 billion in 2022.
Early this year, a DPWH official reported that of the P44 billion supposed allocation for the rehabilitation of waterways, only P2 billion was released, limiting its implementation to only two projects under the masterplan in 2017.
We do hope that our local chief executives, with the DPWH and presidential liaisons, can finally get their act together in solving Metro Cebu’s perennial flood problem.