During heavy monsoon rains, typhoon and high tide of the Manila Bay, many areas of Metro Manila get inundated often lasting for days and weeks even when the sun is already out, particularly  Navotas, Malabon, Caloocan, Valenzuela in Northern Metro and parts of Quezon City in Eastern Metro.

            In the case of Paranaque in Southern Metro, the immediate vicinity of  SM City-Sucat along Dr. Arcadio Santos Ave. (formerly Sucat Road), a major thoroughfare in Barangay San Dionisio, went under knee-deep flood water  due to the heavy rains brought in by typhoon “Kiko” recently.

            The flood extended up to a stretch of the connecting Ninoy Aquino Ave . northward and up to Evacom southward causing heavy traffic logjams both ways to the inconvenience of motorists leaving hundreds of passengers stranded  as public utility drivers cut their trips. This is a common scene especially in the past several months prompting a number of motorists  to call the attention of City Hall.

            In response, Mayor Florencio Bernabe, Jr. ordered the city engineering department to dispatch a flood mitigation crew to look into the complaints.

            The crew later reported that the main cause of the constant flooding

  in the area  was a temporary bridge  built by a contractor of the Department of Public Works and Highway (DPWH) used before and during the construction of the C5 extension road which passes through a property beside  SM-Sucat  leading to Las Pinas.

            During heavy rains and  high tide the construction debris collect under the bridge causing the water to rise and overflow. Bernabe said the engineering group had removed the debris that were left behind by the C5 contractor using  the city’s recently acquired heavy-duty mobile spider  excavator. With the completion of the permanent bridge  whatever debris coming from upstream can now pass through under the bridge but not before these are regularly removed.

            Bernabe said that a major component of the   city’s flood mitigation program is to

to step-up the dredging operation of the Paranaque River. He noted that whenever the tide of the Manila Bay rises, tide water draws back to the river causing an over-flow that spills over to low-lying areas in barangays that the river traverses.

            “What we have to do is to make the heavily-silted river deeper by dredging out the silt and removing the flotsam that are stuck to it. Matter of fact, a private foundation

that formed the Save the Paranaque River Movement is in the forefront of helping the city to revive the once pristine river. We are also most thankful to the Rotary International District 3830, with the active support of the 16 Rotary Clubs of Paranaque,

for initiating and adopting “Linis Ilog” as its flagship project in Paranaque.

Bernabe, who is back to work after a successful preventive heart bypass operation some three weeks ago,  added that Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has given the city the go-signal to acquire a floating dredging machine to speed up the dredging operation in coordination with the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

 .”The on-going dredging and clearing effort also includes all the creeks running

through public and private properties, such as what we previously did in BF Homes and Greenheights Village,” he said. (Media Bureau)