THE meeting between the members of the Bacolod Anti-Baha Alliance led by Jean Trebol, the city government of Bacolod represented by City Administrator John Orola Jr., and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials led by Assistant District Engineer Leah Jamero turned fruitful as most questions raised by those concerned residents were answered well by officials who have the actual knowledge of the flood control project which is still being implemented along Lacson Street.
During the meeting at Planta Centro Hotel in Bacolod City Sunday, they discussed the various questions hurled by members of the alliance regarding the flood control project along Lacson Street, the recent flood that struck some major areas of the city on August 2, what happened to the regulation of the use of plastic bags, illegal settlers, and others.
Orola apparently showed some emotional flare as he does not want “blame game and finger pointing” to prevail.
Trebol said: “We are not here to point fingers on anybody. We came here to be able to understand the reason why and we have prepared questions for the DPWH to answer so we can also help inform the people about the Lacson Street drainage. DPWH said it’s 90 percent complete. But they need to put the exits or inlets in the gutters.”
Overall, the group was happy with the way the dialogue ran as DPWH was able to answer them clearly.
“We are satisfied with the meeting. We remain hopeful that if this problem on flooding could not be fully addressed, at least it can be minimized if the flood control project is completed,” she said.
She added that the plastic wastes are the culprits of the floods as it clogged the drainage outlet.
“We appeal to the public not to throw plastics anywhere,” she said.
The Anti-Baha Alliance started its advocacy in 2006.
Orola, for his part, said the recent flooding in Bacolod City needs to be immediately addressed.
“The recent flood in the city was caused by an extraordinary rainfall. Sometimes our attitude is we become impatient. It got flooded but in 30 minutes to an hour, the flood waters subsided. In the past years, Bacolod also got flooded. For now, there is an ongoing construction of the drainage project. The flood was not even at knee-deep but the reactions were quite too much,” he said.
But it is good that they had this dialogue so they can help one another address the problem, he added.
“If the plastics are the culprit, we will call for the strict implementation of the banning of Sando plastics in the city,” he said.
On the drainage projects done in the center lane, Jamero explained: “we have studied it before we implemented the project. We decided to have it at the center of the streets because of the many obstructions in both sides of the streets where all the utility cables and Baciwa pipes were all situated there so we cannot destroy it anymore.”
Jamero added: “The design was a reinforced concrete pipe culvert which is 1.52 in diameter which is bigger than the existing drainage with 1.07 in diameter which was installed 30 years ago and is currently silted. The present drainage project is not yet fully functional but it already helped rain waters subside. There were exits that were obstructed. But we will continue the maintenance so it can help serve as drains.”
The new drainage project will help drain surface water through the gutters. The inlets are not yet done at the new drainage project at Lacson Streets, she added/
“We will still make inlets in our gutters to help collect surface/rain waters. Inlets are indeed small to prevent garbage from clogging it,” she said.
The outfalls of the drainage are in Mandalagan River and at Mambulok Creek.