By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

A PONDING basin was supposed to be built to solve the drainage problem in Garapan tourist district as early as last year, but the $1.5 million for the project remains untouched, according to Rep. Absalon Waki Covenant-Saipan.
Some businesses in the area have been complaining about the stench they believe is coming from the drainage.
During a meeting of the Marianas Resource Conservation and Development Council yesterday, Waki said $1.5 million was allocated to correct flaws in the design of the area’s drainage system.
The project, he added was to be implemented by the Department of Public Works.
According to Waki, the Division of Environmental Quality has already issued the permit for the project.
The money, he says, is still intact, but the project remains on the drawing board.
Waki said it was only two days ago when the Department of Public Works started cleaning up some portions of the drainage in the area.
DPW “went down there with a backhoe to scrape sand deposited along the drainage line underneath the street fronting the Fiesta Resort & Spa Hotel,” he sad.
The water was stagnant because aside from the drainage system’s deficient design, sediment had filled some portions of the drainage, Waki said.
DPW put up a retaining wall along the drainage line, he added.
Waki said DPW should also “scrape everything that is sticking on the concrete walls of the pavement, including the algae, because it narrows the drainage channel — I have asked DPW to do it fast.”