DAVAO CITY – The Davao City Water District (DCWD) will be fencing off the foundation of its newly- constructed pipe bridge to prevent the return of illegal settlers.
Atty. Bernard Delima, spokesman of the DCWD said that the presence of informal settlers under the bridge makes it difficult for any preventive maintenance activity on the bridge.
“Di kami makalusot dyan kung may bahay (We cannot pass there if there are houses),” Delima said.
Delima said they estimated around 60 households occupying 1,000 square meters of area under Governor Generoso Bridge.
These settlers were forced to vacate the area when the government decided to rehabilitate the weakened Governor Generoso II bridge.
As of the moment, the settlers have not yet returned as the area are still being occupied by the bridge contractor.
The DCWD started constructing the new pipe-bridge located in the middle of the two Governor Generoso bridges aimed at holding the 1000 mm pipes to replace the 650 and 700 mm pipes originally damaged when Governor Generoso I bridge collapsed in 2007.
The pipe-bridge was commissioned in July with the new pipes bringing in 6% increase in carrying capacity. Currently, DCWD has about 201,000 connections up from 194,000 connections in 2014. (davaotoday.com)
