ILOILO City – The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has proposed putting up four more pumping stations here to mitigate flooding.
“Gahulat lang sang release sang project funds,” said Mayor Jerry Treñas.
There are currently two such stations – one along General Luna Street beside Jalandoni Bridge and the other on Muelle Loney. These are being operated and maintained by DPWH Region 6.
Treñas said the pumping stations greatly helped abate flooding brought by incessant rains or typhoons. They automatically work when there is flood.
Pumping stations are part of the city’s drainage master plan.
As to the recent flooding especially in coastal areas due to a storm surge brought by the southwest monsoon, Typhoon “Fabian” and high tide, Treñas instructed the City Engineer’s Office and DPWH to respond.
Flooding was monitored in barangays Rizal Pala-Pala I, Tanza Esperanza, Zamora, Concepcion, Tanza Timnawa II, Flores, Pala-Pala II, Inday, and Tanza Bonifacio in the City Proper; Bonifacio in Arevalo district; Sambag and Dungon B in Jaro district; Pali- Benedicto, Sta. Rosa, Hibao-an Norte, and Onate De Leon in Mandurriao district; Bo. Obrero, La Puz district; and Kasing-kasing in Molo district.
A 2019 study warned that Iloilo City could possibly disappear by 2050 due to rising sea levels. The study was conducted by Climate Central, a United States-based “independent organization of leading scientists and journalists researching and reporting the facts about changing climate and its impact on the public.”
According to the study, Iloilo City is among the major cities in the Philippines that rising sea levels could swallow. Other areas were Roxas City in Capiz province, Cebu City, northwestern Metro Manila and parts of Bulacan, the city of Manila, southwestern Manila, and Zamboanga City.
The study results were published in the journal Nature Communications.
Sea level rise is one of the best known of climate change’s many dangers. As humanity pollutes the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, the planet warms. And as it does so, ice sheets and glaciers melt and warming sea water expands, increasing the volume of the world’s oceans.
The consequences range from near-term increases in coastal flooding that can damage infrastructure and crops to the permanent displacement of coastal communities.
According to the study, rising seas could affect three times more people by 2050 than previously thought, threatening to erase some of the world’s coastal cities.
Iloilo City is a coastal metropolis. It faces the Iloilo Strait.
But according to Treñas, “things like that should not be immediately accepted by anyone.”
The mayor acknowledged that the rising of seawater is one reason why the city government has pumping stations.
“Because magsugata ang high tide, nagasulod ang tubig sa drainage naton,” he said. “But whether malubog ang Iloilo City, that is another story,” added Treñas./PN
