Senators call for bigger flood budget, tougher littering laws

Sen. Ralph Recto called yesterday for a bigger budget, while Senate President Pro Tempore Manny Villar pressed for stricter enforcement of the anti-littering law to mitigate the flood problem of Metro Manila.

"Metro Manila will continue to turn into a ‘waterworld’ during the monsoon months for years to come as money from the deficit-hit government can only come in trickles," Recto said.

He pointed out that while P42 billion is needed to end flooding in Metro Manila, only P1.1 billion was budgeted for the metropolis’ flood program this year.

The master plan for the Metro flood control project prepared by the Department of Public Works and Highways in 1998 pegged the budget at P21.4 billion. Recto said this has since ballooned to P42 billion, largely due to the need to rehabilitate Manila’s aging drainage and silted canals, and to relocate 22,000 families living along waterways.

The DPWH study estimated that P2.86 billion is needed to relocate 22,000 families living on the banks of esteros and rivers, while P10.8 billion is the cost of building more drainage systems. There is also the need to dredge the heavily silted sections of the three-kilometer long maze of esteros in the metropolis.

Recto said the budget department should spare flood control projects in Metro Manila from the austerity measures the government plans to implement in a bid to trim the budget deficit.

Villar, meanwhile, said that strict enforcement of anti-littering laws would go a long way in easing the flood problem that has been plaguing Metro Manila.

"The irresponsible disposal of garbage has contributed to the worsening of the yearly floods in Metro Manila and other urban centers," he stressed.

Villar explained that drainage and waterways clogged by garbage largely contribute to floods in urban areas as it constricts the flow of flood waters.

He said that flood control pumps and dredging of waterways have been rendered less effective because of indiscriminate littering.

Villar noted that many local government units and congressmen in Metro Manila have spent millions to dredge clogged waterways in flood-prone areas.

"But a few months after the dredging, the waterways were again clogged with garbage!" he lamented.

Some water pumps in key areas even got destroyed because of the volume and weight to garbage thrown into the waterways.

Villar appealed of Filipinos to dispose of their garbage responsibly as they, themselves, would be the ones affected by the irresponsible disposal of garbage.