Mounds of garbage still overwhelm Naga City

NAGA CITY, CAMARINES SUR, Philippines — More than two weeks after Severe Tropical Storm Kristine (international name: Trami) dumped torrential rains over Bicol region and caused neck-deep flood in this city, garbage was still sitting on mounds at the side of roads, overwhelming the capacity of the solid waste management office.

With only four garbage trucks and one heavy equipment serving the 27 barangays, City Solid Waste Management Office (CSWMO) Officer Joel Martin estimated they now deal with around 600 tons of solid waste disposal per day, from more than 120 tons before the floods.

Martin, in an interview on Thursday, said that even with the help of private and government volunteers, it would likely take them two weeks to clear roads of garbage that piled up every day, including fresh household wastes.

READ: Naga City, Albay folk cry for help from flooded villages

Help for the cleanup, he said, came from local governments in Camarines Sur, such as the towns of San Fernando and Milaor, and from as far as Sorsogon province, which sent compactors, dump trucks and equipment that stayed in the city for one week since the storm hit on Oct. 22.

However, the garbage dumped along the roads continued to pile up even after they had been cleared, with least 4,000 to 5,000 tons still left for disposal, added Martin.

The city’s subdivisions were also waiting for the clearing operation as the CSWMO has yet to finish clearing many of the main thoroughfares.

More than Enteng

City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (CDRRMO) chief Ernesto Elcamel said in a separate interview that the problem was that the people and their office relied on the projection from the state weather bureau that Kristine was similar to Typhoon Enteng (international name: Yagi), which also flooded some parts of the city near the river banks, in September.

“So, it became the mindset of the people that the flood would be minimal until the situation was already more than Typhoon Enteng when the city center submerged in floodwaters with a depth never experienced before,” Elcamel said.

He calculated that the average depth of floodwaters that submerged 30 percent of Naga City’s land area was between 7 and 8 feet deep, which he marked with a pencil on one of the statues in the city’s Plaza Rizal.

Elcamel said that at about 9 p.m. on Oct. 22, the depth of the floodwaters in the old central business center averaged 8 feet, rushing in from all corners and submerging the ground floor of the city police headquarters in downtown Naga.

Trapped on the second floor of the headquarters, police personnel had to swim out of the building to help in the city government’s rescue operations that night. They then transferred their operation center to the city hall.

“We were overwhelmed by the calls from residents in the flooded areas when the floodwaters rose because all of them were not anticipating the level of inundation, which the state weather bureau did not project,” recalled Elcamel.

He said they were monitoring the rain gauge, which reached 900 milliliters per hour, way above the threshold of 100 ml per hour that could cause only slight flooding in the city center.

Elcamel counted 15 deaths in the city due to the flooding brought by “Kristine,” which affected 70 percent of the Naga City population.

The flooding subsided after three days in many areas but a lot of businesses, particularly the small ones, remain closed as of Saturday.

Barangay response

Ricardo Responde, 37, “lupon” (committee) president of Barangay Mabolo, was grateful for how the early activation of the barangay disaster response (BDR) team mitigated losses during the onslaught of Kristine, particularly when the flood started to creep through his low-lying barangay along the banks of the Naga River.

He said because of the advance reaction of their village officials, damages were lessened: “At about 2 p.m., (Barangay) Captain Arthur Matos requested a power cutoff and declared forced evacuation because he saw the big rainband in the news.”

The day before the flood, the BDR team—comprising village watchmen, elected and appointed officials, and barangay health workers (BHWs), with the village chief acting as the chairperson—was briefed about the incoming storm and the details of the operation when the flooding began.

They were divided into groups each responsible for a cluster of households around the village that needed to be rescued and transferred to six evacuation centers, which were managed by BHWs and other officials.

These evacuees were provided with food and other needs by the BRD teams and volunteers for three days until they could return to their residences when the floodwater began to subside.