CAGAYAN de Oro 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez late last week bared a P925 million flood control master plan with the regional public works for the city's Bitan-ag creek.
Presiding over a meeting with the DPWH officials, Rodriguez said the proposed drainage improvements in the second district will be installing a megaflood control system using up-to-date technology to mitigate the flood problem in the Bitan-ag Creek, Limketkai, and USTP areas.
“The proposal is to install flood water pumps and booster pumps in three strategic locations: Bitan-ag Creek, Agora Market area, and Butuan-CdeO-Iligan road conjunction, ” said Rodriguez.
He said that the automated pumps will draw large volumes of water out from the Limketkai and USTP areas to Macajalar bay while efficiently removing the high volume of trash that is clogging the Bitan-ag Creek.
The project, he said is estimated to cost P925 million which includes P150 million per booster pump station (with 2 water booster pumps in each station for 3 stations) and P475 million for the water pumping station (with 4 water pumps) to discharge the water to Macajalar Bay over the gate installed at the mouth of Bitan-ag Creek.
“The gate will prevent the water from returning to the creek during high tide discharges from the water pumps,” said Rodriguez.
Present during the meeting were DPWH-10 Regional Director Zenaida Tan, Planning Division chief Engr. Ben Caliao, 2nd District Congressional office chief-of-staff Atty. Regine Rodriguez, PPA CdeO Manager Bong Butaslac, and representatives of NEDA and city officials of CdeO. Mr. Jun Oroña of Centrifugal Machinery presented his proposal to solve the problem of flooding in the said area.
Rodriguez likewise said that he will push for the funding of the automated flood control system during the budget deliberation of the 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
The said proposed project is part of the eight big-ticket projects of Rodriguez including his proposed CDO Metropolitan Railway and the Northern Mindanao Railway system.
