DAVAO CITY—Mayor Sara Duterte has ordered the creation of a technical working group tasked to facilitate the desilting of rivers and streams in Davao City.
Mayor Duterte issued Executive Order No. 09 series of 2018 to address the problem of overflowing of rivers and flooding the city.
“There is a need to allow desilting operations within the watershed areas to address the heavy siltation problem in rivers and streams, which could result in overflowing of water and flooding during rainy seasons,” she said.
The mayor identified City Engineer Joseph Dominic Felizarta as Chairperson and named the Department of Public Works and Highways, Davao City Mining Regulatory Board, Mines and Geosciences Bureau and City Environment and Natural Resources Office as members.
The technical working group shall be responsible for all operations.
They are also tasked to determine the need for the desilting operation, the amount or volume of materials to be extracted during the desilting process and determine the need to tap a private entity to conduct the desilting operations if the local government lacks the necessary equipment and manpower to conduct them.
All costs pertaining to the operation of the Technical Working Group shall be taken from the available funds of the City Government of Davao, subject to the usual accounting and auditing rules and regulations.
It can be recalled that Davao City has experienced several flooding incidents due to the over flowing of rivers located in different parts of the city.
On December last year, the city was struck by a big flood that displaced hundreds of families after Davao river overflowed.
In 2012, at least 20 died while 15 people were missing when Balusong river overflowed in the city.