Bacolod lone district Rep. Albee Benitez on Wednesday expressed his hope that his city will soon serve as the country’s benchmark in solving persistent flooding.
This after the first session of the Bacolod Flood Mitigation Summit was held on October 20 to determine the concrete steps necessary to address the problems caused by chronic flooding.
The summit, the brainchild of the lawmaker, convenes various stakeholders in efforts to collectively address flooding in the city.
“We recognize that solving the flooding issue is not the responsibility of just one agency, or the government’s alone. I am glad that our partners have shown full support for this endeavor. We are optimistic about finding the right solution through this Summit, and who knows, making Bacolod the benchmark in addressing this problem in other cities and towns across the country,” Benitez said.
According to Benitez, the summit’s first session would serve as the baseline to crafting a long-term, data-driven flood mitigation plan for Bacolod.
“We consider the first leg of the Summit as very important for us to see the flooding situation more clearly.”
Representatives from the Department of Public Works and Highways, department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, Department of Interior and Local Government, PAGASA, National Irrigation Administration, among others, shared technical assessments on rainfall data, climate impacts, the condition of our waterways, and the state of our existing flood control structures.
Meanwhile, the Bacolod City government, barangay leaders, the academe, and civic organizations also provided inputs.
“We consider the first leg of the Summit as very important for us to see the flooding situation more clearly—after identifying where floods occur, understanding why they happen, and aligning all available data, we have enough information to process before we commence the second phase sometime in November,” explained Benitez.
He added that the second phase of the summit will focus on concrete proposals and coordinated interventions from stakeholders.
