MAASIN CITY (PIA) -- People living in the biggest barangay in this city expressed confidence that when La Niña time takes over right after the intense heat currently being experienced, they will be safe from flooding.
“You can now feel a sigh of relief, for in mitigating the risk of potential flooding during heavy rainfall, you have a sense of security for you and your loved ones,” DPWH District Engineer Manolo Rojas told officials and residents of barangay Combado in an inauguration ceremony on April 19.
Rojas was referring to the positive impact the newly completed flood control project traversing a river across the barangay has brought to the community, adding that the structure symbolized a “beacon of resilience that can stand for generations to come.”
Fresh in the minds of the locals were images of how they struggled one rainy night as water overflowed from the Combado River in a sudden flash flood about four years ago, when total darkness and waist-deep waters caught the residents by surprise.
Barangay Combado officials led by Chairperson Rodley Galeon (fourth from right), DPWH personnel headed by District Engr. Manolo Rojas (second from left), Rep. Luz Mercado, and former DPWH Secretary Roger Mercado (center, wearing dark glasses), strike a pose by the starting point upstream of the flood control project. (Photo: PIA Southern Leyte)
Luckily, everyone was rescued safely during the harrowing ordeal that evening.
The fateful experience was repeated in June 2021, during typhoon Dante (international name: Choi-wan). Fortunately, the widespread flooding occurred at daylight, past 1 p.m., and the people had enough time to pack up and evacuate.
“Abot sa atop ang tubig sa bagyong Dante, maayo gani kay adlawan to nahitabo, ug nakabakwit mig sayo,” said Jove Salazar, a resident of Purok Molave.
(The water level reached the roof of our house in typhoon Dante. Good that it happened during the day, and we were able to evacuate early on.)
Now that the flood control project is in place, the water from upstream will directly rush out to the river’s end outlet by the sea and will not scatter just about anywhere as it did then, Salazar recalled in an interview with the Philippine Information Agency.
An underground spring was one of the features protected by the Combado River Control Project. Here, children and adults can take a bath and wash clothes. (Photo: PIA Southern Leyte)
Rodley Galeon, barangay chairperson of Combado, heaped words of thanks to officials for finally completing the solid anti-flood structure for the safety of his constituents.
It was the second inaugurated flood control project; the first was in an upland Barangay Bato 1, on April 12, as usual, with a host of provincial and city officials and mayors attending, including First District Rep. Luz Mercado and former DPWH Secretary Roger Mercado.
The Combado flood control project, which started in 2021, has a total cost of P162 million and spnas 600 linear meters of high concrete on both sides of the river, said Engr. Gideon Sacro, assistant district engineer. (MMP, PIA Southern Leyte)
(Photo caption) Another view of the river control project showing the far end which is the outlet, the mouth of Combado river passing the national highway going to the sea. (Photo: PIA Southern Leyte)
