TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, January 11, (PIA) –Residents of Purok 6 in Loreto Cortes now plead for the public works office to look into their plight, as a possible lapse in engineering design has put them at on a sorry state in these season of rains.
While Tropical Storm Seniang poured a month-long of rains in 24-hours in large areas of Bohol swelling rivers and wiping off most of the houses in this village, those houses that survived the raging waters have to survive still being soaked in ponds that refused to drain.
“It is never like this then,” a muddied resident who pleaded not to be named shared.
“We never had anything like this before the highway was paved with concrete,” he said.
“See that hill at the back of the houses?” he pointed, “water from the hill washes this way here,” sweeping his hands on the sunken potion of land on the other side of the elevated highway.
“But we never had any flooding on this part because there used to be a culvert that facilitates the draining of the water collected here, down to the river a few meters below the highway,” he revealed.
The culvert however has to be taken when the contractors strengthened the highway foundations. We thought they would replace it with a bigger and sturdier culvert, but it never happened, another resident whose new core shelter was among the houses dipped in mud and water.
“Or maybe, they scrapped the putting up of a culvert to save on contract costs?” another one hinted.
About ten houses, all build on the sunken portion on the left side of the highway to Tagbilaran had to remain in the water for several more days even after the flood has subsided, as the water simply has no egress.
It was good that we had not seen any rain bigger that Seniang, or wed have complained about this already, a mother clutching a toddler confirmed.
Several people however refused to believe that the lapse was simply omission.
Show us the design, were sure there must be a culvert incorporated in the construction as there was a culvert then, a visibly irate resident whose house was among those which were totally submerged as the floods came on the early morning of December 30.
On this, they said the Department of Public Works and Highways must fix this, for in their delayed action again, the water collected here could soften the highway foundation and erode it, complainants agreed. (RAC/PIABohol)
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