Rama says residents should also take part in cleanliness drive

Vice Mayor Michael Rama believes it should be the responsibility of the city's residents, especially those living along creeks and rivers, to take the drive to ensure cleanliness in their respective areas.

The vice mayor stressed the call during yesterday's launching of the Water Conservation Month wherein he emphasized that it should not only be the city government and the non-government organizations that should initiate cleanup activities in the city's creeks and rivers.

Rama said that those living along creeks and rivers should make sure not to throw their garbage or wastes into the water to prevent clogging, which can result to overflowing during heavy rains.

Last Tuesday evening, a heavy downpour caused a concrete wall near the Sindulan Creek in barangay Mabolo to collapse, trapping some residents inside an apartment.

The ordinance that formed the Cebu City Rivers Management Council aims to restore the riverbed gradient by building gabions and impounding dams, implement erosion control measures such as delineating riparian buffer strips at upstream areas where bamboos are planted, and strictly implement a no-garbage and solid waste dumping in the river.

The council is also entrusted to ensure no sand and gravel are extracted in any part of the river, strictly control on point-source pollution and implementation of waste water treatment before sewer and industrial effluents are allowed into the river, implement easement regulations along the riverbanks and develop these strips into promenades, institute barangay level management and monitoring groups for their respective sections of the river flow within their jurisdiction and initiate a complementary sanitation project of household water conservation and rainwater harvesting.

The board has decided to form a barangay-based task force to monitor high-risk areas in the city, especially during heavy rains. Rama, head of the Coastal Management Board, assigned Councilors Gerardo Carillo and Nestor Archival to identify the high-risk areas in the city's southern and northern barangays respectively.

Among those initially identified are the areas surrounding the Kinalumsan River in barangay Mambaling and certain areas in barangay Kamputhaw. - Joeberth M. Ocao/LPM