THE Mandaue City Government tasked the City Planning and Development Office to check areas in the city that have clogged drainage and advise the barangay officials to clean the waterways to avoid flooding.
To address flooding in Mandaue City, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 6th Engineering District Office has continued road rehabilitation with drainage facilities and flood control projects in nine areas.
Five areas in Mandaue City experienced flooding from heavy rainfall last Wednesday dawn.
When this happened, 60 families evacuated in Barangay Cubacub.
Since the rainy season has started, lawyer Jamaal James Calipayan, executive secretary of the Office of the Mayor, advised the public to start cleaning the canals near their houses.
“The City Engineer’s Office was advised to deploy suction pumps to clean clogged drainage systems,” Calipayan said.
The City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office identified nine barangays that are flood-prone areas, including Tipolo, Subangdaku, Guizo, Mantuyong, Looc, Cambaro, Umapad, Paknaan and Cubacub.
Projects
The DPWH 6th Engineering District Office implemented projects in some of these barangays to address flooding.
Engr. Myrna Dela Cerna, project engineer of the 6th Engineering District Office, said they have ongoing projects for the improvement of the flood control structure in Subangdaku and Sitio Alliance of Two Hearts in Basak.
The DPWH allocated P2 million each for the two areas.
The contractor had covered 71 percent of the works in Subangdaku, while 72 percent in Sitio Alliance of Two Hearts.
In Tipolo, the DPWH allotted P26 million for the improvement and rehabilitation of the flood control structures in the area, including the dredging and re-channeling of the waterways of Tipolo River.
Dela Cerna said the same project is also being done in Butuanon River. The project has a budget of P49 million.
The DPWH also allocated P2 million each for the drainage project in Guizo and in Sitio Sudlon, Maguikay, but bidding was not yet done for these, said Dela Cerna.
Budget
Improvement and rehabilitation of roads is done in Paknaan (P50 million), CD Seno St. of Tipolo (P20 million) and Cabancalan (P2 million). However, only 10 percent of the project is intended for drainage facilities.
When asked why there is a small budget for the drainage facilities in these areas, Dela Cerna said they were not the one who identified the project, but the congressman.
As rain is expected in the next days, the City will not allow families affected by the fire in Mantuyong and Guizo to use the CICC for safety purposes.
About 2,222 families from Mantuyong and Guizo were displaced by fire last March 12.
Most of the families continued to stay at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) grounds.
“Despite that part of the structure is still okay, but there will be danger if mopasu’d ta ana sa kadaghan sa taw (we let that much people in),” Calipayan said.
Calipayan said they continue to look for ways to help them.
He said there are already families that have built temporary shelter with galvanized iron sheets as their roof inside the CICC compound to protect them from rain.