By Dean Aubrey Caratiquet
After Monday’s heavy rainfall inundated streets and houses with rapidly rising floodwaters, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) shared some initial observations about how Metro Manila cities dealt with the downpour.
In a briefing Tuesday, Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon noted that the cities of Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, and Valenzuela (CAMANAVA) were relatively spared from usual high floods—despite having been historically known for submerging in deep floods when heavy rains strike.
Secretary Dizon went on to cite some examples of how the coordination between the agency and local government units (LGUs) resulted in effective and successful improvements in mitigating floods, which include improvements to the decades-long flooding problem along G. Araneta Avenue.
Through various exchanges with residents in the area, he learned that floods along the major thoroughfare have subsided in a period of 4-6 hours, which they said is a notable improvement from the previous 18-24 hours that it took for floodwaters to empty into the nearby San Juan River.
While the DPWH official expressed satisfaction at these minute but tangible improvements, he emphasized that holistic and long-term solutions to mitigate perennial flooding do not happen overnight and require consistency, hard work, and continuity to move forward.
Secretary Dizon, meanwhile, shared that the DPWH has been collaborating with the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) to facilitate the construction of dams in Pampanga and Marikina River to bolster the defenses of communities in these areas against floods.
This, on top of other projects and initiatives that the DPWH is undertaking to minimize the number of areas that experience inundation during episodes of voluminous downpour, which include the following:
- Water detention basins
- Reviving inactive pumping stations
- Building seawalls
- Sealing dike gaps
- Dredging improvements
- Drainage improvement projects
Secretary Dizon concluded his statement by sharing that these projects are included in the proposed 2027 General Appropriations Act (GAA) and are part of a comprehensive Flood Control Masterplan that is slated for completion by year-end.
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