Firm puts up retention ponds

CEBU, Philippines - The Monterrazas de Cebu under the GENVI Development Corporation is putting up the country’s first ever retention ponds for real estate development.

Lawyer Dindo Antonio Perez, GENVI chief executive officer and president, said they invested so much in the project as control against floods.

Perez said that they had installed 14 retention ponds in different areas of their 400-hectare development.

Worth about P50 million, the retention ponds are expected to be fully finished before the end of the year.

“We invested in this kind of project because we believe that this would greatly benefit not only us, but most especially the communities, especially during rainy seasons since this will control the release rates of storm waters,” Perez said during the press conference yesterday at the Monterrazas de Cebu’s Pavilion Club House.

Perez said the retention ponds, each of which has 50 years sustainability period, can carry a total of 28,000 cubic meters of storm waters.

He said that they will also apply the gray water system, in which the stored waters in the retention ponds will be used for irrigation.

Perez said that when Monterrazas was launched in 2007, retention ponds were already part of the plan as requirements given by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

DENR-7 spokesperson Ed Llamedo said a retention pond is a structural mitigating measure to prevent flooding in low-lying areas.

“This is required when building or constructing subdivisions to contain the rain water from going down directly. This is in compliance to the environmental compliance certificate condition issued to Monterrazas,” Llamedo said.  (FREEMAN)