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WATER catchments in upland areas and not drainage systems are needed more to resolve the floods that perennially plague Cebu City, according to Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
The mayor said water catchment areas was part of the master drainage plan completed in 2006 but was not implemented due to financial constraints.
Last Saturday's downpour that caused a five-year-old girl to drown raised attention to the city's drainage master plan.
?The approach is not just to put up a new drainage system. The solution is to put up impounding projects in the upland,? said Osmeña.
He said water from elevated areas flows down fast but the drainage is too narrow to contain the large volume of floodwaters.
The proposed mini dams will hold the water in the upland areas and slowly release it towards the existing rivers and drainage to keep the pressure low and prevent flooding.
Osmeña said rehabilitating the existing drainage system will only worsen the situation.
A refurbished drainage will only flush more floodwater the low lying areas in the city similar to what happened in barangay Mabolo due to the new drainage system set up in Ayala Business Park.
He recalled that somebody died in barangay Mabolo a few years back after drowning in floodwaters.
In 2004, the Cebu City government tapped companies to study and help draw up a drainage master plan for the city.
The master plan covers the construction of six mini dams, five rainwater reservoirs in the low lying area, seven infiltration beds, six channels to be improved, four drainage trunks and desiltation of 10 rivers in the city.
The mini dams will be set up in barangays Busay, Sapangdaku and Kalunasan.
?I did not know why we did not proceed with it...these are the things that we have to catch up with,? Osmeña said.
Drainage experts said that once the master plan was implemented, the incidence of flood prone areas would be reduced by 70 percent in 2005 and 50 percent in 2010.
Flooding would have been eliminated by 2020.
In the meantime, police and barangay officials plan to create barangay teams for rescue and relief operations during floods and other emergencies.
Senior Supt. Patrocinio Comendador Jr., chief of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said they wish to apply what they learned during a visit to the Maas River in Davao City, one of the largest rivers in the country.
Comendador said barangay Maas has its own rescue team.
?Based on our observations, (creation of rescue teams) can also be applied here,? Comendador said.
A police-paramedic team is still on standby at the CCPO.
Even with these measures in place, residents living near rivers like sitio Tipolo, barangay Guadalupe insist on staying at home despite the threat to their lives and their property.
One of these residents is Catalina Herbito.
He said they have nowhere else to go as they have been staying in their area for 20 years.
His house was destroyed during a heavy downpour last Sunday.
Last Monday Abraham Lucero Jr., DENR geologist, warned that soil siltation in river and upland communities continually put the residents there at risk.
Guadalupe barangay captain Eugenio Faelnar said officials should order the demolition of 15 to 20 houses located along the riverbanks in sitio Tipolo, Guadalupe.
Faelnar, president of the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) in Cebu City, said political will is needed to carry out the demolition even with the coming elections.
He said these families, who come from Santander, Samboan and other towns in Cebu, would usually return to the area to rebuild their homes.
Faelnar said last Saturday's floods gives even more reason for these families to return to their homes. /With reports from Correspondents Chito Aragon, Fe Marie Dumaboc and Jhunnex Napallacan
