CONCRETE drainage projects alone will not solve Mandaue City’s persistent flooding, according to the Mandaue City Planning and Development Office (CPDO).
CPDO Planning Officer Rizel Rabaca said drainage infrastructure accounts for only about half of what is needed to address flooding.
“These installations of drainage systems are just maybe 50 percent, or around that portion only, to solve the flooding,” Rabaca said, explaining that flood control also depends on rainwater management within private properties, river maintenance, solid waste management and stormwater regulations.
Rabaca said property owners can help by installing rainwater harvesting systems and maintaining permeable areas that can absorb rainwater instead of allowing runoff to flow onto public roads.
“It is not good that we rely 100 percent on the drainage system, thinking that if we complete our drainage, there will be no more floods. It does not work that way. There are larger factors at play,” Rabaca said.
The city’s Master Drainage Plan, developed in phases from 2018 to 2020, identified flood-mitigation measures across Mandaue, with proposed infrastructure projects estimated to cost more than P5 billion based on 2018–2020 prices.
“Unfortunately, the direction of (flood control) development in cities across the Philippines hasn’t always been proper. It happened, but we still have time to correct it,” Rabaca said. / ABC