THE Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD) will establish an additional catchment facility to add up their water sources inside the 16-hectare D' Family Park in Barangay Talamban, Cebu City.
During the 20th anniversary of the D' Family Park, Friday, May 31, 2019, Engineer Jose Eugenio Singson Jr., MCWD general manager, said they can develop the existing lagoon inside the facility and convert it into a catchment basin to store rain water.
Singson said they plan to trap the water from the mountains during rainy days to the catchment facility and used it as additional water source and prevent flooding in the lowland area at the same time.
The Banilad-Talamban road is known to be among the areas that usually get flooded during rainy season and the plan of the water district to divert the water to their facility will be a big help to address the problem.
But before they can start the project, Singson said they need to study first the hydro-geologic formation or the ground water movement of the park.
Even if there will be a catchment basin that will be established in the area, Singson said the park will remain since it only occupies at least four hectares of the entire property.
“Our plan is, we will not use it (water stored in the catchment) during normal months so we can have enough water supply during dry spell to replace the water that will be lost due to the hot season. By doing it, we will no longer experience grave problem on the effects of the dry spell,” Singson said.
Singson said they are hopeful that before the dry season in 2020, they can already use the catchment basin.
As to the budget of the project, Singson said they can look for an allocation to finance it.
“The most important thing is we already have the area. Because if we have the plan and budget but we don't have an area, it's really a problem,” he said.
D' Family Park is owned by MCWD and was constructed through the Priority Development Assistance Fund of Representative Raul del Mar, of Cebu City North District.
Del Mar was also present during the 20th anniversary celebration of the park. (SunStar Cebu)