Body to do 24-hour monitoring of creeks, canals proposed

Due to the absence of enough funds for relocation, a body should be created instead to conduct a 24-hour monitoring system, especially during downpour, over creeks and canals in the city and the situation of residences in those places.

Vice Mayor Michael Rama made this proposal believing that it would the best immediate solution to protect the lives of residents from floods of creeks and canals especially during heavy rains considering that these people could not be relocated at this time.

Rama said he would meet with barangay officials for the enforcement of the "Bantay Kanal" program, which is an activity design to make sure that these canals and creeks in the city would be monitored constantly of risky condition.

This endeavor would also augment the existing activities of the Cebu City Disaster Coordinating Council in monitoring the canals and creeks in the city.

Once the system is in place, there would be easier coordination among people tasked to monitor these bodies of water for immediate action in case dangerous conditions arise, the vice-mayor said.

Special attention would be given to the Guadalupe River, which has been known to be the passageway of rainwater from the elevated areas of the city, he said.

Rama cited as example the communication system of the olden days when mountain folks used the "budjong" or shell to produce a sound as warning to those living in lower areas every time there was flooding in the highlands.

In another development, Rama said the team that has been working on the city's drainage master plan is already on its last stage of documenting the drainage problems in every barangay in the city. "We cannot be prolonging...this should be finished soon," he said.

Upon the suggestion of councilor Procopio Fernandez, the team has been documenting the barangays' respective drainage problems so that barangays would have participation in the approval of the drainage master plan.

Once the documentation is completed, the working committee will present the data to the city council for scrutiny and approval.

After this, Rama said the city government would then work to obtain the P2 billion funds needed to implement the comprehensive drainage plan.

Engineer Mike Cale, the city's consultant in drafting the plan, said earlier that the first and second stages of implementation would need at least P500 million each.

This amount is on top of the P13 million that the city had allocated for the feasibility study of the project. So far, 90 percent of the P13 million has been disbursed, Cale said. -Joeberth M. Ocao/RAE