NHA hit for inaction in sewage damage

A group of urban poor dwellers on Monday slammed the National Housing Authority for its supposed inaction on the breakdown of a sewage treatment plant in Pasig City.

Hundreds of members of the Alliance of Peoples’ Organization stormed the National Housing Authority in Quezon City to demand its prompt action on the frequent breakdown of the sewage treatment plant of the in-city housing project, low-rise buildings that were granted to informal settlers families who used to dwell along Manggahan Floodway, Pasig.

“For over a year now, the 2,300 residents have to bear the obnoxious smell resulting from the STP’s breakdown.  Furthermore, the detestable exposure to defective STP causes headache among the residents, especially the children, women, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups residing in the buildings, making them prone to respiratory ailment,” said Lalaine Suarez, the group’s president.

“We are sick and tired of the inaction and neglect of this agency to our appeals. They promised us that they will come up with a memorandum of agreement with Manila Water Co. Inc. and Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System to be able to transfer the maintenance and operation of the STP to Manila Water as it has the technical capacity to manage and operate STP. But until now we are in a limbo as to what happened to the MoA,” she said in a statement.

The group also demanded the immediate resumption of the construction of the remaining seven buildings that had been granted to 120 informal settler families whose dwellings along Manggahan Floodway were demolished in 2017.

The construction of Manggahan Residences, an in-city low-rise building located across the Manggahan Floodway, Eastbank Pasig started in 2013 and was supposed to be completed in June 2016. 

The construction was stopped in 2016 due to a complaint lodged by the beneficiaries about the substandard construction of the buildings, and the delay and non-payment of NHA to the project contractor, the group said.