One minute a 7-year-old boy was playing in the rain with his older brothers.
In a flash, he slipped and disappeared in the torrent of a muddy creek that swelled during yesterday afternoon’s downpour in Mandaue City.
Cort Cabucos’s lifeless body was found 100 meters away by neighbors and his father who followed the water’s path in sitio Orel, barangay Banilad.
The boy’s drowning, which occurred during a less-than hour-long rain in a populated neighborhood underscored the threat of urban flooding in Metro Cebu.
Local government efforts to desilt waterways and remove shanties by the riverbanks will be tested with the onset of the rainy season.
At the Mahiga Creek, which has residents in both Mandaue City and Cebu City, heavy rains became a constant source of concern for settlers waging a legal battle with Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama over the demolition of their houses.
Elizabeth Rosos said she stayed away from the creek to keep her five-month-old baby girl dry. Her family occupied a tent after their house was demolished.
No repeat
Another resident, Paulino Arcipe, said most of their belongings got soaked in the rian.
“We hope (Cebu City) Mayor Michael Rama takes pity on us and gives us houses to live in,” Arcipe said.
About 30 displaced Mahiga residents moved to a sidewalk beside their demolished shanties or crossed to the other side of the road in cebu City.
Rama said the ongoing clearing operations of the Mahiga Creek would open the city’s waterways to ease flooding and avoid the loss of lives during the rainy season.
He said he doesn’t want a repeat of the Jan. 25 flasflood, where an unusal volume of rain fell in Metro Cebu within two hours, submerging parts of Cebu City that had never been under water before.
With 35 shanties removed from the Mahiga Creek this May, City Engr. Kenneth Carmelita Enriquez said the city could start dredging the area.
Two backhoes were sent to the site in sitio Isidro, barangay Mabolo yesterday.
’Identify projects’
The Cebu Ports Authority (CPA) is supposed to clear the part of the creek from the CPA to the sea, she said.
Other target areas are near the Mahiga bridge and upstream to sitio Lahing Lahing behind the Mabolo sports center.
The Metro Cebu Water District will be asked to switch off water supply to prevent accidental leaks in case water pipes are hit by the backhoes.
She said several water pipes were found along the creek.
When another downpour fell 11 p.m. last night, water quickly rose and flooded the area near the newly opened Mambaling-Natalio Bacalso Avenue Overpass.
Small vehicles that usually pass underneath the overpass opted to go up to avoid the flooding.
The water receded in the afternoon.
Mayor Rama said he asked city administrator Jose Marie Poblete to pick out projects in the city’s drainage master plan that could be readily implemented.
“I don’t mind borrowing money (for his),” said the mayor.
Poblete said City Hall should decide whether the P800 million drainage master plan prepared by consultancy firm Schema Konsult in 2004, which was never executed, should be updated.
Poblete said water catchment basins need to be built in the uplands to prevent runoff rainwater from flooding the city proper.
UPDATED
The mayor said the city government could borrow money from the bank using Block 27 at the North Reclamation Area as collateral.
Block 27 was the same vacant lot offered in 2006 by then mayor Tomas Osmeña for a land swap with the Province of Cebu to resolve its conflict over province-owned lots occupied by urban poor families in Cebu City.
The deal was aborted. The conflict over lots covered by Ordinance NO. 93-1 remains.With Correspondent Edison delos Angeles