Navotas Mayor Toby Tiangco blamed the Department of Public Works and Highways for the flash flood that submerged the city’s largest barangay in 1.5 meters of water yesterday.
He said Phase 1, Kapitbahayan, including Lapu-Lapu Avenue, Babanse, Bangus and Apahap streets on the Dagat-Dagatan side of Barangay North Bay Boulevard South (NBBS) were the most affected.
Panicked residents swamped city hall with complaints since the flash flood disrupted their normal routines. The flood also postponed the graduation rites of three schools in the area.
Tiangco blamed the flood on an alleged test made by the DPWH at the pumping station in Barangay Bangkulasi, inaugurated by President Gloria Arroyo in 2006. The pumping station is part of the still unfinished Camanava Flood Control Project of the DPWH.
“There have no floods in Phase 1 Kapitbahayan since the Babanse pumping station started to operate,” he said.
Barangay officials were surprised as tidal waters – which caused the flash flood – have been controlled by the pumping station, one of 17 that Tiangco set up in strategic areas of the city to mitigate flooding in Navotas.
Tiangco said the city government, relying on its own resources, decided to construct the pumps because they cannot wait for the Camanava flood control project, which was supposed to be completed in July 2007, to be finished. DPWH officials said the project is 85 percent complete.
City engineer Lito Serrano quoted Joel Magtanyog, DPWH project engineer in charge of the Camanava flood control project, as saying that the sudden rise of the tidal waters was due to a scheduled test on the pumps at the station.
Serrano confirmed that the DPWH neither sent a notice nor coordinated with the Office of the Mayor or the City Engineer’s Office regarding the alleged testing.
Responsible DPWH officials could not be immediately reached to shed light on the incident.