Bill filed to require minimum ground level height of stores
A MEASURE has been filed in the Dagupan City council requiring local businessmen to raise the ground level of their stores in the aftermath of the 10/9 deluge.
Business establishments in the city suffered massive losses in product inventories and damages to equipment at the height of the unprecedented flooding in the city’s commercial area.
Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, who heads the CSI Group of Companies, noted that many of the stores that were flooded remained unopened five days after the calamity owing to the damage that their inventories, facilities and equipment suffered.
“We will invite all the businessmen in the city to a public hearing to ask their views on the measure because raising the ground level of stores will entail additional costs to them,” she said and assured the business sector that the city council will listen to their concerns.
The proposal takes note of the fact that the first floor levels of all stores in the city were submerged in two to three-feet deep of water.
Urban planning
At the same time, the vice mayor stressed the need for the city to engage an urban planner to help draft development strategies for the city, factoring in the effects of the 10/9 flooding in the city.
She also raised the timeliness for enactment of a new building code based on the established flood lines in each barangay.
She cited the possibility of phasing out the single level bungalow type of houses in Dagupan and uniformly require two-storey abodes so families would have a safe place to move to during floods.
Many residents were forced to seek refuge in the rooftops of their houses.
“Another consideration, she raised is the need to construct a dike particularly in low-lying areas like Barangay Mangin where the floodwater was about six feet deep,” she said.
Disaster preparedness
The vice mayor praised the city government, led by Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr., for it high level of preparedness for the calamity compared to other cities and towns.
The city government conceded, however, that rescue operations, however, were hampered by lack of rubber boats.
“We should invest in more rescue equipment,” she said.—LM
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