Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri challenged on Tuesday the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to look for long-term solutions to the flooding dilemma of Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

The September 26 calamity that befell Metro Manila and nearby provinces caused by storm ‘’Ondoy’’ triggered widespread destruction and untold suffering to the populace after natural and man-made waterways failed to discharge an unusual big volume of floodwaters to Manila bay.

Weathermen told the Senate climate change committee chaired by Sen. Loren Legarda last Monday that the water level at Marikina during a nine-hour period from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. last September 26 was a very high level of 410.6 millimeters while the amount of uniform rainfall in the Metro Manila area was 410.9 mm. The recorded high floodwater level for one day in central Luzon in 1972 was 350 mm.

Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Lito Atienza warned that the destructive variable climate situation, short of stating that the Philippines is now being affected by climate change, last Sept. 26 would not be the last to hit the country as a result of environmental degradation.

Zubiri said the dredging of canals, cleaning of esteros and other clearing up operations at this time would not sufficiently address the age-old issue of flood control and management.

During the committee hearing, Zubiri asked DPWH officials to present their master plan on how they envision to mitigate the floodwaters coming from the Laguna Lake, Manila Bay and other nearby towns and provinces that inundate the metropolis.

“We cannot just say let’s dredge this canal. Let’s take out this estero,” he said.