RUNOFF PLAN WORRIES MANDAUE
Technical group wants flood water from 4 villages linked to the drainage on ML Quezon Ave. to the Butuanon river
The Mandaue City Government is worried about the planned drainage system that is being eyed as a remedy to the flooding in four neighboring barangays of Mandaue and Cebu City.
Mayor Gabriel Luis Quisumbing III and Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna met last Thursday morning with Cebu City Councilor Alvin Arcilla and members of the committee tasked to solve the drainage problem in Barangays Banilad and Cabancalan in Mandaue and Barangays Banilad and Talamban in Cebu City.
In an interview, Fortuna said that the committee wants the water from the four barangays directed to the drainage on M.L. Quezon Ave. in Barangay Maguikay in Mandaue.
The Department of Public Works and Highways was tasked to come up with a program of works for the P8-million project, which will be funded by the Cebu City Government.
Last September 2016, Quisumbing and Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña met to discuss the flooding problem in the four barangays.
At that time, the engineers of the technical secretariat for the Banilad- Cabancalan-Talamban Communities drainage committee, led by Engr. Fe Walag of Water Resource Center of Cebu City, proposed that the drainage of the four barangays be linked to the one along M. L. Quezon Ave. and channel the floodwater to the Butuanon River.
But Fortuna said that the drainage on M.L. Quezon might be damaged or the water might flow back because it is only designed to accommodate the water from the road.
“It is not designed for the runoff water from Maria Luisa, Talamban to Cabancalan. ( Can you) imagine the volume of water ( during heavy rains?),” said Fortuna.
He said that the proposed remedy may have been avoided had the wetland in Cabancalan been restored to its natural function, “which is to catch runoff water from the upper tenements of Talamban and Banilad” on the Cebu City side.
But the wetland can no longer drain water because it was clogged and the only mitigating measure was to construct a drainage system, Fortuna added.