No more flash floods in Metro, says Palace

Malacañang assured the public yesterday that flash floods in Metro Manila would be a thing of the past even with the onset of the rainy season.

In a statement, the Palace said the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority told President Arroyo during her visit yesterday to the Tripa de Gallina pumping station located at the boundary of Pasay and Parañaque that dredging and de-clogging had been made to ensure there would be no more flooding.

The President’s inspection of the dredging and de-clogging operations of waterways and canals is part of her efforts to make sure that the mitigation or prevention of flooding in Metro Manila’s streets is being religiously undertaken by the MMDA.

MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando said that his agency’s dredging and de-clogging efforts, which had been operating 24 hours a day, were able to clean 90 percent of Metro Manila’s waterways and canals.

"So (the incidence of) flash floods will be minimal," Fernando said.

Accompanying the President during her inspection were local officials, led by Pasay City Mayor Wenceslao Trinidad, Pasay City Rep. Consuelo Dy, Parañaque Mayor Florencio Bernabe, Jr., Parañaque Reps. Eduardo Zialcita and Roilo Golez, Fernando and Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) General Manager Alfonso Cusi.

The Tripa de Gallina pumping station forms part of the MMDA’s Pumping Stations and Floodgates Operations System designed to drain floodwater in the low lying areas of the cities of Manila, Pasay and Makati into the Manila Bay through the Parañaque river.

Its construction started in 1976 under a loan agreement between the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) and the government of Japan.