ILOILO CITY needs a Comprehensive Drainage Masterplan. But it needs something more: the political will, sustained funding and institutional discipline to carry that plan from the consultant’s desk to the city’s flood-prone streets.
Mayor Raisa Treñas’ proposal to review the entire drainage system and explore underground catchment basins beneath public plazas is timely. The city can no longer rely on infrastructure designed for rainfall patterns that climate change has rendered dangerously obsolete.
In the past, the city experienced less than 50 millimeters of rainfall. It can now receive as much as 200 millimeters in only one hour. No amount of routine declogging can fully compensate for a drainage network overwhelmed by four times the volume of rain it was originally expected to handle.
The city has completed nearly 421 declogging operations since last year. These are necessary and must continue. Blocked canals worsen flooding, and residents must also stop treating waterways as garbage bins. But declogging remains a maintenance measure, not a lasting solution to a structural and rapidly worsening problem.
The proposed masterplan must therefore determine where the floodwater comes from, where it accumulates, how quickly it moves and whether existing canals, culverts, pumping stations, rivers and outfalls can accommodate it. It must also account for rapid construction, the disappearance of permeable surfaces, coastal conditions and developments that divert runoff into vulnerable communities.
The idea of building catchment basins beneath public plazas deserves serious consideration. Similar facilities could temporarily hold stormwater instead of allowing it to immediately inundate homes, roads and businesses. But this proposal must undergo rigorous engineering, environmental and financial assessment. Public safety, heritage structures, mature trees and the continued use of plazas must not be sacrificed for a project whose effectiveness has not been firmly established.
More importantly, the masterplan must not become another expensive compilation of maps, statistics and recommendations gathering dust inside City Hall. Iloilo City cannot afford that familiar cycle.
Before consultants are hired, the city government must establish clear deliverables, deadlines and performance standards. The completed masterplan should identify priority projects, estimated costs, funding sources, implementation schedules and the government offices responsible for every component. Its major findings must be made public so residents can monitor whether recommendations are being carried out.
The plan must also survive changes in political leadership. Flood control cannot be redesigned every three years according to the preferences of whoever occupies City Hall. It requires continuity across administrations, coordination with the Department of Public Works and Highways and close cooperation with barangays, neighboring local governments, property developers and utility companies.
Accountability must be built into the masterplan from the beginning. Officials, consultants and contractors must answer for delays, defective projects, unjustified changes and failures to meet engineering standards. Every peso spent should produce measurable improvements in drainage capacity and flood reduction.
Not all recommendations can be implemented at once. Major drainage upgrades and underground catchment basins will require enormous funding and years of construction. But the city can begin with the most flood-prone communities, adopt phased targets and publish annual progress reports.
Residents do not need another promise that Iloilo City will someday be “future-proof.” They need proof that planning has begun, priorities have been established and actual projects are moving.
