WAR ON FLOOD. Volunteers remove tons of garbage stuck at a tributary connecting the Mahiga Creek in Barangay Banilad, Cebu City. The city government on Friday (Oct. 13, 2023) appealed to big establishments to comply with the legal easements to prevent floods. (Photo courtesy of Cebu City Task Force Gubat sa Baha)
CEBU CITY – The Cebu City government appealed to big establishments on Friday to voluntarily comply with the easements required by law in building structures along the riverbanks and waterways.
This came after the Task Force Gubat sa Baha (war on floods) deputy head Jefferson Omandam said the city will send notices to establishments, including Cebu's largest electricity distribution company, to voluntarily demolish their structures found to have encroached the three-meter easement required by law.
The task force, he said, identified the concrete lot at the company’s main office in Barangay Banilad as a structure above the Mahiga Creek.
“That is already beyond the commerce of men because it is a river. So we could not build any structures in that area,” Omandam said.
He said floods usually occur during bad weather in areas where tributaries are blocked by structures in a golf course, uptown subdivision, and a few housing areas.
“Some houses and swimming pools have been built on top of the waterway,” he said.
He, however, said they saw the ongoing construction of new drainage networks as part of the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project package as a solution to floods in the city.
Norman del Mar, head of the Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW)’s drainage and flood-control division, said the construction of more gabion dams at a valley in Sitio Mahayahay in Barangay Apas will also solve the lack of water catchment in the city. (PNA)
