Philippine city needs major funds to address floods

Ben O. Tesiorna in the Sun Star (Davao, Philippines): Davao City needs around P60 billion to address the perennial flooding in the city, which is blamed on the antiquated drainage system and on climate change. Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said the city needs to build six huge canals to lessen flooding. This, he said, would however entail a lot of work since aside from building the canals, the City Government also needs to expropriate the private properties where the canals will be built and relocate those who will be affected.

"If you really want to remedy the constant flooding of the city you have to build about five or six huge canals like that one along Roxas Boulevard. You have to acquire the land, you have to build the canals and relocate those affected with the building of the canals. Ana ka problema (that's how big the problem is)," Duterte said.

However, the vice mayor said the City Government is taking care of the problem as best as they could. He added that the existing drainage system in the city was planned and constructed by the National Government and not by the City Government. "It was inherited by us from the National Government. And even the maintenance was turned over to us just 15 to 17 years ago," he said.

Duterte said the city has only about P4 billion annual share from the Internal Revenue Allotment, thus it could not easily allocate the huge budget needed for the construction of huge canals. He said that it is possible for a private sector or a foreign corporation to build the canals, which the City Government will pay slowly in a span of years….

A village near Magsaysay Park in Davao City, shot by Pascal De Backer, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported