Councilor Alberto Ungab, chairperson of the Committee on Appointments and Government Reorganization and Disaster Risk Reduction and Management of the City Council, is pushing for the establishment of an inter-agency flooding task force in response to worsening floods in the city.
Ungab noted that the situation has become more severe compared to previous years and that relying solely on infrastructure projects is no longer enough to mitigate the problem.
“That is why we suggested during one of the sessions that there should be an Inter-agency Task Force to address the flooding because flooding now is totally different than the flooding five years ago. Just imagine we can have a flood even as far as barangay Carmen or Wines, it did not happen five or 10 years ago, it’s different right now,” Ungab said during the Pulong Pulong sa Dabawenyos media forum.
According to Ungab, the city’s intensifying flood issues are exacerbated by a lack of coordinated effort among different levels of government, from national agencies down to the barangay level.
“There are three rivers in Davao City: the Lanang River; all the other rivers do not start in Davao City. We call that the Davao River, but it starts in San Fernando, Bukidnon. All the dikes there and all the water will proceed through the City of Davao, if hindi na mag-overflow sa kanila. So, we should be talking with them, and that is why we need an inter-agency approach towards this. Talomo River, where do all the tributaries come from? It comes from North Cotabato. Davao City does not have control over the waterways, we have control over the exit, but on the entrance, there are a lot of tributaries coming from other provinces,” Ungab explained.
Ungab’s proposal aims to reactivate a flood control initiative from 2016, placing the city government of Davao in charge of the task force to prevent agencies from shifting blame during flood events.
“First of all, this was done way back in 2016, headed by DPWH. After that, we don’t know anymore what happened, that is why we suggested that the city will initiate an Inter-agency Flood Control Task Force so that we will not be pointing fingers at each other every time,” he said.
Ungab stated that a key task for the task force is to pinpoint the specific causes of flooding in different areas.
“How many times have you experienced the overflowing of the Talomo and Davao Rivers? The devastation they caused was too much. That is what we should project on what particular areas these happen,” he said.
Ungab said the proposal is still in the early planning stages since he just introduced it last week.
