goILOILO.com
Travels and personal perspectives on Iloilo and Panay Island
Sewerage/Septic/Drainage Systems in the Philippines
Tags: Iloilo Drainage System, Iloilo Real Estate, Iloilo Septic System, Iloilo Sewerage System, Iloilo Subdivision, Philippine Drainage System, Philippine Septic System, Philippine Sewerage System
Most Philippine cities have drainage systems of some kind. You will not see separate storm water and waste water (sewerage) systems. Wastewater freely mixes with the stormwater. In practice this is not as bad as it sounds as the volume of storm water is large and may well flush out the drainage system and its contents into the streams and rivers. The installation and maintenance of drainage systems (along with roads and water systems), seems to be one of the major responsibilities of local government.
The systems are not necessarily centralized. The idea is to get wastewater to a nearby ditch, stream or river. Ideally, each residence will have a septic tank or cesspool. This can provide some very basic level of treatment of human waste. The output of septic system (septage) is piped to the subdivision or barangay drainage system. Sometimes the drainage system is more or less underground and sometimes it is open concrete ditches. This can be smelly but cheaper and easier to keep clear than covered drainage systems. In many places the drainage system is under the sidewalks, the sidewalks consisting of concrete slabs covering the drainage channel. Sometimes these are broken, so walk carefully or plunge a few feet into the malodorous mess. There is no further treatment of the waste before it plunges into the nearest stream.
Missing slabs show a typical "sidewalk over sewer" Philippine municipal sewer system in Tigbauan, Iloilo
In squatter areas the the above scenario breaks down and there can be more obvious, surface pollution.
Iloilo has some big rivers with strong tidal flows so all that goes into the rivers seems to get promptly flushed away. My impression is that the situation is better here than in Cebu City where the streams used for drainage were really disgusting. Check this link for a reality check on sewerage disposal in Iloilo City, but remember that the situation is the same everywhere in the Philippines and in most poor countries.
When you look at property, ask about and confirm the easy availability of a good drainage system. We have looked at property in Iloilo City which seemed so nice but actually had no access to a drainage system. Further, access to the nearest drainage would involve going through other properties. This may or may not be easy. Do NOT expect anyone to inform you of such problems when you look at property.
All comments and corrections appreciated.
Related Posts
Posted by GOIloilo on 09.09.08 9:13AM under Iloilo Real Estate, Our House Project, Philippine Retirement
Post Comments
XHTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
* Required. Your email will never be displayed in public.