The Manggahan Floodway Project

The creation of the Manggahan Floodway was a crucial project which had a huge potential in terms of decreasing the already severe and dangerous flooding issue within the NCR region. The main purpose of the floodway is to divert excess water directly from the Pasig and Marikina Rivers channeled towards the Laguna Lake. However, the floodway is not being utilized to its main purpose as well as its potential due to the huge amount of informal settlers that currently reside along the banks of the floodway.

The project stretches across the city of Pasig, Cainta, and Taytay, but it is mainly focused in Pasig since most of the Manggahan Floodway is in that city. Our project objectives were to conceptualize a solution that will improve the existing major problems of the site; establish a sustainable community; and enhance the existing housing community, as well as the future housing projects of the area, and the lifestyle of the people. For the housing we opted to focus in integrating renewable energy and urban farming on site to reduce the burden of having expensive bills for necessities while still having a healthy and safe environment. This in turn will make the floodway clear from debris, trash, or plants that can potentially block the passage of water along the floodway. The solutions we formulated for the flood way was to restore the floodway to its original state, increase the water capacity, integrate social spaces and incorporate local biodiversity.

Overview of the issue and the approach: Addressing the current problems that are present in the floodway as well as the area's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and strengths, there were three concepts to which we saw potential in terms of the redevelopment of the floodway. These are the Climate Resiliency, Social Interactions and Biodiversity. We first thought of a way to relocate the informal settlers that currently reside along the banks of the floodway to a location near their current residence but far enough from the floodways for their own safety. The proposed social housing gives a modular approach which can be applied anywhere and in any project. It aims to cultivate better the life of the informal settlers by giving them a place, not only a shelter, but a home not far from their original settlement, and also applying innovations to establish and promote sustainability. Our approach towards the floodway was to redesign and redevelop it to maximize the opportunity of the space occupied by the floodway.
The essence of the solution: The solutions we proposed primarily focused on relocating the informal settlers to a safer environment and to redevelop the existing floodway.
The stakeholders in the project: The main stakeholders of the project are the residents, users, local government officials, resource providers and the construction managers.
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