‘Garapan severely lacks adequate drainage system’

Don’t be surprised if floods hit the Garapan area even during a small rain because it is a big wetland and it severely lacks an adequate drainage system, according to the Garapan Watershed steering committee.

“Garapan is basically a big wetland. It’s a big, low, flat area. Water tends to stay there,” said district conservationist J. Scott Crockett of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

To address the flooding and related concerns, the water coming down the area should be diverted and drainages must be built, he said in a presentation at the House of Representatives yesterday

“We’re looking at doing solutions for diverting water away from that area. We want to clean it; build bigger drainages so that they can handle that much water,” said Crockett, a liaison officer for the committee.

This, even as he noted that the Garapan watershed project is being stymied by the lack of funds.

The lack of a CNMI voting representative in the U.S. Congress, he said, contributes to the difficulty in getting federal appropriation.

“We don’t get those funds since we don’t have a voting representative in Congress,” he told the lawmakers.

He said the Garapan Watershed Steering Committee, formed in February 2003, remains in the ground stage. It has yet to come up with a comprehensive report—through the USDA—on the entire watershed project. The report itself would require some $150,000.

“My agency will make a study to determine alternatives, options, solutions,” he said.

The conduct of a comprehensive report, he said, remains unfunded.

“There should be a report first but it’s pending funding. We’ve requested for the fund [from USDA national headquarters],” he said.

Based on the initial plan, sediment basins must be constructed in key areas to hold and direct water.

In particular, Crockett said the U.S. Army Corps is looking at possibly building a sediment basin behind the Garapan cockpit area to capture the storm runoff water.

Such structure, he said would allow sediments to fall out and that water would be released very slowly so that clean water goes to the lagoon and that it does not go down to the drainage at once, causing problems.

He said it has not been determined how many sediment basins should be built in the area.

In his presentation, Crockett said the committee’s purpose is not limited to flood prevention but also to address other concerns such as parking, trash, and water quality.

“If you ask the people in Garapan, their No. 1 concern is water quantity and water quality. Flooding is actually item 15 or 16,” he said.