Meycauayan-Marilao-Valenzuela Flood Footprint

Ok. I'm back! after working in another country for 4 years, I'm gonna make this blog active.
And yes, back with a vengeance! I literally grew up playing in flooded streets.
I left the country after Ondoy... and now, this. flood... but worse than before. Since my profession is somewhat aligned with planning, i should at least be able to help my neighbor and kababayan about this problem. Or to identify the problem... since flooding is not a problem, it's the effect/consequence of not fixing the problem. To start of, I need to carefully map the whole Meycauayan and it's neighbors (Marliao, Obando & Valenzuela) on their flooded streets. Thankfully, I've found this interesting website called scriblemaps.com.

Below is my initial sketch on the flooded area in my vicinity and those neighboring areas i know are flooded. hope you can help me guys to try to put a polygon on areas which are flooded.

This is just the 1st Phase of work. I saw a floodmap of Meycauayan and seems pretty Ok. nonetheless, i need confirmation on these areas. (http://nababaha.appspot.com/static/flood/bulacan.html)
(since the meycauayan-marilao McArthur hi-way has a new elevation... i believe some areas are now flooded which are not covered in this map... and other problems like blockage of natural drainage, garbage pileup, etc.)

2nd phase is to identify the depth of floodwater in those areas.  
3rd phase is to know the direction of water i.e. if it's stagnant or not, or if its moving, where it's heading to.  
4th phase is to compile ideas on redirecting flood water
5th phase is to create guidelines on house construction/subdivision construction on flooded area

This might take even my whole lifetime. But i don't care. As long as i keep my mind busy, and loving the work... bring it on.  

Why I'm doing this?

1. I had enough of the floods in Meycauayan.
2. I have some free time.
3. I like cycling. And i can't ride my bike on flooded areas which covers big potholes.
4. for 30 years, (yep, i'm that young.) it seems our Local Government are not doing their part or rather had their hands tied up with garbage problems & uhmmm... i don't know... It seems that they are only interested on creating higher roads which i think a stupid solution for flooding.


Please help me to identify flooded roads in Meycauayan. I'll try to roam around during rainy days to try to find out flooded areas. (IF Wife permits... or didn't notice i'm not home.)

Meycauayan river's requiem?

Should we offer a requiem to meycauayan river?
Do you guys know the details on how toxic this river is today?
check on this link for the comprehensive report >> click here

to summarize that looooong 78page pdf file...

1. MMO - Meycauayan, Marilao and Obando rivers do experience the same thing. They're all contaminated with heavy metals... (not rock bands and rock songs ha!) Wikipedia Yep! they're all polluted with mainly industrial wastes from those informal industries. those smelting-metal factories. (those with no proper waste disposal system! I hope you all burn in hell!) Never knew that those factories are the main culprits on giving meycauayan river its colors today.


2. They've taken some samples for testing. (ground water, Surface water, sediment monitoring, etc.) They found a great amount of chemicals/elements from those sample. Cadmium, Manganese,Copper, lead, mercury, zinc, and Arsenic to name a few. And some of these have high concentration on those samples they've collected.

3.They've also took some live samples. (Paros, prawn, tilapia, bangus,etc.) i was not surprised to know that there are high concentration of those metals/chemicals listed above on those live samples collected... (and i will never ever buy prawn, tilapia and bangus that came from MMO rivers and nearby fish pens.)

4. Even our soil is contaminated with heavy metals exceeding the allowable limits! The areas included in the sampling were: Tugatog, Calvario, Banga and Saluysoy.

For Meycauayan, the spread of these toxic heavy metals to public areas is of utmost concern especially since the area is prone to flooding. There also has been indiscriminate dumping of contaminated soil in public areas as landfill materials. A formerly-used lead acid battery recycling plant in Banga, Meycauayan was found to be heavily contaminated with toxic metals. Although already an abandoned area, the soil and plant samples indicate high concentration of lead, cadmium and arsenic. It has also exceeded the allowable limits for cadmium, chromium, copper and zinc. (Table 2.1) This shows that legacy pollution, such as this abandoned ULAB recycling plant, continue to pose a risk to the environment and health of the surrounding communities.

They did post some solution/suggestion to the problem but i think that we should all do our part to save the river and also save ourselves from future danger caused by these soil and water pollution. They can't do this alone. It's our river they're cleaning. Also, i think our Local Government should double/triple their effort on their part of cleaning the river. Strict implementation of rules should arise. Their/Our previous efforts were i think not sufficient enough for our river to have a small significant change. Ipa-alam sa iba ang kalagayan ng ilog meycauayan!