We’re all in it together.

A couple of months before the rainy season starts, Valenzuela City Mayor REX Gatchalian is calling on other local government units in Metro Manila and Bulacan to clean the waterways in their respective territories to control the flooding in these regions.

“Not all trash that settles at the bottom of waterways in Valenzuela City are produced here but were only washed down from cities upstream,” Mayor REX said in an interview during the launch of a creek clean-up drive by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Friday, April 4, in Valenzuela City.

“So we can dredge the trash in our rivers and creeks forever, but if the surrounding local government units neglect their own, then all our efforts would be futile,” the local chief executive said.

He also appealed to city residents to stop throwing trash in waterways, to practice segregation at homes.

Mayor Rex thanked the MMDA for including the Viente Reales Creek among the 15 creeks in Estero Blitz, which runs until June 6.

MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino said the project, which began in 2011, aims to hasten the receding of flood when it rains in Metro Manila by increasing the capacity of waterways to hold floodwater.

The agency is expecting to have cleaned 387, 487.70 cubic meters of creeks by the end of the project on June 6, Tolentino added.

Tolentino said this is the first time the agency is cleaning the 1.7-km creek in Barangay Veinte Reales.

On April 4 and 5, the MMDA personnel and the city’s Rives and Waterways Management Office prepared the Veinte Reales creek for the rainy days using floodwater equipment that includes: 11 dump trucks, 3 hook lift trucks, a self-loading truck, a spider backhoe, a backhoe on barge, a long-arm backhoe, a declogging machine and a vacuum truck.

Valenzuela City has 58 rivers, creeks and other waterways, including the Tullahan River, which also flows through Malabon City.