THE destruction of nine houses near Kinalumsan River in Cebu City started on Wednesday, March 24, 2021.
The structures are among the more than 500 houses (not 300-plus houses as earlier reported) standing near the river, which traverses Barangays Mambaling and Duljo Fatima.
Owners of the nine houses volunteered to dismantle their houses as they wanted to make use of the tin roof and other house parts when they transfer to other places, said City Councilor Jerry Guardo, chairman of the City Council’s committee on infrastructure.
Samuel Colinar, an elderly living near the bridge that connects N. Bacalso Ave. and Mambaling, did not mind that the City persuaded him and his neighbors from abandoning their places.
Restoring the Kinalumsan River, he said, back to its original size can protect the urban community from being flooded during rainy days.
Colinar said his family started to live near the river 40 years ago. He later had his own family and sired three children, one of whom now manages a hotel in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental.
Colinar and his neighbors affected by the flood control project received the P24,000 financial assistance from the Department of Public Works and Highways 7.
The management teams of three commercial establishments near Kinalumsan River agreed to dismantle their fences that encroached on the river. New fences will be built six meters from the river.
Guardo said the flood control project will widen Kinalumsan River by 16 meters, its original width. The width of the river right now, he said, is five meters.
The estuary or the area where the area meets the Mactan Channel will be widened by 26 to 30 meters.
The flood control project will affect 214 houses in Mambaling and 300 in Duljo Fatima. The City Government is in the process of explaining the project to the majority of residents. (PAC / KAL)