Manila Mayor Francisco Moreno Domagoso is urging the national government to build more sewage treatment plants (STPs) to prevent flooding during times of heavy rainfall.
He made this remark after the heavy downpour brought by the enhanced southwest monsoon caused fresh flooding in the city.
“The long-term solution is to create more STPs… You have increased the load of water to be thrown into the sea, which needs to be cleaned,” he said in Filipino.
He described weekly declogging as a short-term measure, noting that STPs will give the city a strong capability to prevent flooding despite heavy rainfall.
Existing STPs are insufficient to handle the volume of water entering the city during heavy rains, he added.
The construction of STPs under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) was necessary to comply with the Supreme Court’s (SC) ruling, according to him.
“Along Roxas Boulevard, our state’s compliance with the [SC]’s order, the DENR and DPWH built and constructed what you call an STP. That is good, that is the solution to comply with the mandamus ruling,” he said.
Meanwhile, he stressed that STPs should not be limited to Roxas Boulevard, where most existing facilities are located, but should also be built in other flood-prone areas in the city.
He also revealed that following an inspection of the city’s drainage system, some streets were flooded due to clogged inlets filled with sand, soil, and silt—not garbage—suggesting that proper maintenance could also reduce flooding.
