MMDA exec: Don’t blame us for floods

A Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said the agency should not be blamed for the flooding in the metropolis, pointing instead to people who carelessly dump their garbage.

Noel Santos, MMDA Flood Control and Sewerage Management official made the observation after floods swamped many Metro Manila roads at the height of heavy monsoon rains last Thursday.

Santos said garbage deliberately thrown on the streets end up clogging drains, waterways and pumping stations.

“Piles of garbage get stuck at the machinery of pumping stations. We have to stop operating the flood control facility to manually take out pieces of domestic trash,” said Santos.

The big volume of garbage collected daily indicates that the public has not learned how to properly dispose of their garbage, he said.

Before the rainy season began, the agency’s Estero Blitz program hauled over 6,339 cubic meters of solid waste and silt, equivalent to almost 1,000 trucks from 15 waterways during massive declogging operations in the metropolis.

“Our drainage systems are filled with plastics and dried leaves, restricting the flow of floodwater,” Santos said.

While agency workers regularly clean waterways, it is easy for the public to blame the flooding on the MMDA, he said.

“People should put the blame on people who indiscriminately dump their garbage anywhere,” said Santos, citing as an example street vendors in the Balintawak area in Quezon City who left some 24 cubic meters or three truckloads of garbage by the roadside over the weekend.

The vendors followed the schedule for taking out trash but garbage collection was delayed. (Anna Liza Villas-Alavaren)