THE Metro Manila Development Authority has resumed its campaign to clean up clogged creeks and open waterways to prevent severe floods in the metropolis during the rainy season.
In its latest operation, the MMDA Flood and Sewerage Management Office collected 1,400 truckloads of silt and garbage from several creeks and esteros in the metropolis.
MMDA officer-in-charge Thomas Orbos said he ordered his men to intensify the cleanup activity especially with the expected increase in rainfall due to the La Nina phenomenon.
Among the areas cleaned up include Maytunas Creek in Mandaluyong City, Estero de Magdalena and Roxas Canal in Manila, Tanigue Creek and Pasong Malapad Creek in Caloocan City, and Dario Creek in Quezon City.
Orbos said his men used heavy equipment such as backhoe, hook lift truck, crane, spider backhoe, and several dump trucks during the cleanup activity.
Aside from the cleanup of canal and sewerage system, MMDA Estero Blitz program also includes the cleanup of barangays and public markets in the area.
The campaign also aimed to maximize the “conveyance capacity” of open waterways in Metro Manila to enable it to accommodate larger volume of floodwaters during the rainy season, thus hastening the flood receding rate and minimizing flooding.
Orbos said the program is also part of the agency’s efforts towards urban renewal and disaster mitigation.
“We are calling on the public to participate in cleaning up their surroundings. We can do this more effectively if everybody is helping. We also encourage barangay officials to continue maintaining the cleanliness of their esteros, markets and surroundings,” he said.
The MMDA recently urged local executives in the National Capital Region to prepare for the La Nina phenomenon which will bring heavy rains in October.
Last year, the National Economic and Development Authority approved the P22-billion project to rehabilitate 50 pumping stations in NCR.
The project will specifically address the structural measures to improve urban drainage in the metropolis.
It will be achieved through an integrated set of interventions to modernize existing pumping stations to accommodate urban expansion; increase short-term water retention capacity in the drainage areas; reduce the volume of the indiscriminately dumped solid waste into waterways; and support community—driven resettlement of Informal Settler Families encroaching in easements for drains and waterways linked to the project pumping stations to safer in-city locations.
The project is divided into four components; Modernization of Drainage Areas (P15.5 billion); Minimizing Solid Waste in Waterways (P3.3 billion); Participatory Housing Resettlement and Project Management, Support, and Coordination (P1.998 billion).
To date, MMDA has 54 water pumping stations and these pumping stations were designed to pump between 80 millimeters and 90 mm of water per hour.
