In the mad rush from the 1980s to the present to put Laguna province on the map as an ideal place to live and work, the issues of environmental protection, particularly protection against the threats of flooding, had been brushed off to one side.
To recall, this newsmagazine has repeatedly raised the issue of the major waterways in parts of our province that were either diverted or filled up to give way to vast industrial and residential areas that now define the landscape of our province.
But the spate of severe weather disturbances – the most recent being storm “Kristine,” which battered Laguna last month – drove home the inconvenient truth that we are now reaping the grim fruit of runaway urbanization.
And even as the threat of even more extreme weather disturbances looms upon the Philippines due to the effects of climate change, residential subdivisions and industrial parks are still “reclaiming” what was once vast farmlands and rural areas.
It doesn’t take an expert to figure out that unless local government units (LGUs) step in and devise a comprehensive plan to mitigate the flood problem, more and more Lagunenses will face the rising threat of flooding during bad weather.
We need more than the “piecemeal” projects of constructing more drainage systems or clearing our clogged waterways, as this newsmagazine had pointed out in the past.
At the same time, maybe it’s time to review current and plans for residential and industrial hubs in the province and ensure that they strictly follow the highest standards for flood control and disaster risk reduction.
The fact is that we cannot (and should not) let our thirst for economic development outrank concerns to protect our environment, not to mention reducing the risks of massive property damage and casualties in adverse weather conditions.
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