Vendors at the Bankerohan Public Market appealed to the local government to address the consistent floods in the area due to the constant heavy rains.
Paul Previldo E. Bermejo, Ancillary Services Unit (ASU) chief, said the vendors have been asking for assistance in declogging the canals in the public market as they are losing customers already.
“The vendors have reported to us that they are losing income because customers could hardly access their area because of the flood inside the market,” he said.
According to Bermejo, they already declogged the canals inside the market but they still have to conduct an inspection on how to solve the overflowing vactor that is targeted to be finished within the week.
“We still have to wait for an inspection of what really is necessary there because we also don’t have enough equipment. We have to check if there is a need for a manual rodding to offload the manhole,” he said.
Maribeth Lumactod, City Economic Enterprise Office OIC head, also said they are addressing the concerns of the vendors by tapping the City Engineer’s Office to make some interventions.
“We have addressed the flooding inside the market itself while we coordinated with the CEO for the vactors and the ASU for the declogging the streets along Bangkerohan,” she said.
She added that while they could address flooding inside the market, they could not act so much on the street flooding because it is outside their area of responsibility.
“Inside the market, we are assigned with the maintenance but the CEO takes charge of the street canals because we have no large equipment that can declog larger streets canals, and besides, that is their AOR,” Lumactod said.
“If we can declog our main canals along the streets, that will be sufficient in preventing floods. But, of course, we also need to enhance our side canals inside the market,” she said.
Bermejo also said they coordinated with the CEO, especially on the equipment needs.
“The CEO assists us. In case we need additional dump trucks and backhoe, they provide us with that.
However, I think the best that we can do is to open the manhole and conduct manual rodding to inspect how to declog and drain it,” he said.
According to Lumactod, they already built side canals near the fish section that will direct flood water from the area towards the main canal.
On the other hand, Lumactod also noted that some vendors are also contributing to the flooding.
Vendors, according to Lumactod, are regularly informed of proper disposal of garbages especially those that may clog the canals including fish scales and other internal organs.
“That (informing the vendors) has been made daily by the market inspectors,” she said. “One of the causes of clogging is the undisciplined vendors who would throw scales and other wastes in the canal,” she said.
