MMDA says it’s ready for La Niña

FROM conducting rescue training for barangay officials to unclogging waterways, everything possible has been done by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to prepare for the coming of the rainy season.

“We believe that we are already prepared but since they consider this La Niña season, we don’t know if our advanced preparation will be sufficient,” MMDA Chair Emerson Carlos said during the agency’s Sunday radio program.

He added, however, that they were banking on the upgrading of their pumping stations’ capacity, a project that was completed last year.

MMDA Flood Control and Sewerage Management Office head Baltazar Melgar said that the agency’s experience during Tropical Storm “Ondoy” had taught them to ensure the preparedness of barangay officials for typhoons that may cause flooding in low-lying areas.

“Almost every flood-prone area in Marikina City, like Nangka and Tumana, has its own fiber glass boats,” Melgar told listeners. According to him, aside from providing rescue boats, they also conducted rescue training for residents so that they could help others trapped in flooded areas.

However, Melgar said that the MMDA would resort to deploying those rescue teams only when they were direly needed. “As much as possible, we [prefer] to evacuate people [before the floods hit],” he stressed.

On top of its rescue training program, the MMDA announced earlier that it had upgraded its pumping stations, cleared the drainage system in the metropolis and unclogged waterways to avoid heavy flooding, especially in 85 identified flood-prone areas.

These include Araneta Avenue, Edsa-Aurora Boulevard and Edsa-Tuazon underpass in Quezon City; Blumentritt, Dapitan and V. Mapa in Manila; C-5 Bagong Ilog in Pasig City; Edsa Pasong Tamo Tunnel, Edsa Ayala Tunnel and Magallanes Interchange in Makati City; and Edsa-Taft and FB Harrison-Edsa in Pasay City. Also identified were Ninoy Aquino Avenue fronting Pagcor in Parañaque City, the Alabang Zapote Road in Las Piñas, East Service Road in Muntinlupa City, the Dagat-Dagatan Avenue Extension in Malabon City and North Bay Boulevard in Navotas City.

To reduce flooding in these places, Carlos said that they had upgraded the capacity of their pumping stations by 25 percent.

According to him, the upgrading project was completed last year although its effectivity has yet to be tested—something that could only be done during the rainy season.

Melgar added that all of the MMDA’s 54 pumping stations were fully functional, able to pump 350 drums of floodwater every second.

Another helpful project of the MMDA this rainy season, according to Carlos, is the Effective Flood Control Operating System, a rehabilitated flood control and early-warning project which can alert Metro residents to possible flooding an hour before it happens.

The project, which is based at the Rosario Pumping Station in Manggahan, Pasig City, was handed over by the Japan International Cooperation Agency to the MMDA last March.