Garbage dumping boosts city floods

THE ONGOING practice of throwing garbage onto city  streets is a key contributor to the flooding problems in Panama City  during the rainy season, and costs the government  multi-millions of dollars in a losing battle .

About 200 tons of trash and debris, enough to fill 22 garbage trucks, have been removed from the rivers and streams far this year with the cleaning and dredging of the tributaries in the capital city by the Ministry of Public Works (MOP).

The main problem of overflow streams is that many go through neighborhoods where people throw dispose waste like, stoves, refrigerators, and other large household items.

Another situation that contributes to flooding is the construction of houses on the banks of rivers, and, the creation of illegal landfills.

$55 million approved by the National Economic Council at the entity for dredging and cleaning of rivers will not be sufficient  if the practice of throwing garbage on the street persists. The  emergency funding covers the dredging of creeks, sewer blockages, cleaning gutters, canalization of rivers, replacement filled with stones boxes and other debris.

The latest reports from the Joint Task Force   indicate that 500 homes have been affected by floods since the beginning of  September.