The underground facility at a newly opened basketball court in Barangay Santa Monica, Quezon City that aims to lessen flooding in the area just uses gravity to operate, an engineer said.
According to Jonathan Andal’s report in “24 Oras” on Tuesday, the rainwater will flow through the drainage going to the water detention basin underneath the new court at Palmera Homes Phase III. Once the rain stops, two locking mechanisms will be turned to open a gate through which the accumulated water will flow to the Tullahan River.
“Itong detention basin na nilagay natin is actually will be operated by gravity only. So wala siyang pump, so nasa higher level siya. Kapag bumaba ang elevation ng river, automatic lalabas yung tubig from the detention basin,” said city engineer Dale Perral.
(This detention basin we installed will actually be operated by gravity only. So it doesn’t have a pump; it is located at a higher level. Once the river’s elevation goes down, the water will automatically flow out from the detention basin.)
The water detention basin has a depth of four meters and has the capacity to hold 1,700 cubic meters of water, or more than half of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
The new facility is similar to the one in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig which has the capacity to hold a water volume equivalent to eight Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The water detention basin in QC cost P45 million and its construction took a year.
“Hindi po ito DPWH-implemented project. It’s solely implemented by the Quezon City Government,” said Perral.
(This is not a project implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways.)
“Naisip namin ito kasi instead of having separate projects, baka mas feasible at practical na pagsamahin as much as possible. Since yung land naman at location ay government property, so practical siya for us. At the same time, mas nakatipid pa in effect.”
(We thought of this because instead of having separate projects, it might be more feasible and practical to combine them as much as possible. Since the land and location are government property, it’s practical for us. At the same time, it actually saved us more money in the process.)
Barangay Santa Monica captain Charlie Manalad said that the new flood control facility will help solve the flooding in their area.
“Talagang number one problem dito, pag malakas na malakas ang ulan, napakabilis ng pagtaas ng tubig,” he said.
(It is really the number one problem here; when the rain is very heavy, the water level rises very quickly.)
The city engineering office said the water basin is part of the city’s Master Drainage Plan based on the analysis project by the University of the Philippines’ Project NOAH.
There are still two or three more multi-purpose detention basins to be opened soon in the city. One is in Tandang Sora which also has a basketball court on top, and a retention pond is being constructed within the Quezon Memorial Circle. — Vince Angelo Ferreras/BM, GMA Integrated News
