26 January 2010

QC embarks on massive drainage declogging drive

The Quezon City Engineering Department (QCED) has embarked on a massive declogging of the city’s drainage system, collecting an average of close to 1,000 fully-laden dump trucks of wastes and silts daily from the inlets and waterways at the start of the year.

Joselito Cabungcal, chief of the QCED, said aside from the road repair works, his men have been continuously retrieving garbage and wastes that have already settled and found their way into canals, manholes, and drainage mains.

“It is not raining so much that is why we have been retrieving silts and wastes which have formed in clusters thus hampering the smooth flow of water in the waterways,’’ Cabungcal noted.

Cabungcal said the waste-retrieving efforts of the QCED is facilitated by the city government’s acquisition of two state-of-the-art vacuum sewer jet machines. Each gadget is capable of extracting at least five cubic meters of wastes in one setting.

The P34.1-million flood control equipment is being fully utilized with the mounting volume of wastes clogging the city’s inlets, canals, esteros and drainage mains.

Aside from the massive declogging works, Cabungcal said he has regularly scheduled the cleaning of Diliman Creek, Culiat Creek, Mariblo Creek, La Mesa Creek, Lagarian Creek, Arayat Creek, Estero de Valencia, Buwaya Creek and various water tributaries and waterways in the city.

To beef up the Quezon City flood control system, Cabungcal has recommended the installation of more inlets, desilting of box culverts, dredging of waterways, riprapping of creeks and rehabilitation of damaged drainage mains to minimize the incidence of flooding.

Cabungcal said the city government has closely coordinated with the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for a systematized and synchronized flood control structure in the city.

By Chito A. Chavez

Manila Bulletin

January 25, 2010