Every middle to lower-class Filipino who has grown to granny years must have a sharp memory of floods as a child in his/her country. Walking in the murky waters or being carried on the father’s shoulders from home to school and back, wading in a sudden river outside the house, catching small fishes near the gutters, making balls of muds and throwing them at playmates. It was fun then and fun to tell. Till by repetition, it became a sob story.
Floods have become even worse in the many years after, degrading quality of life and incurring costly damage on property, not to mention claiming lives. Varying causes have been heard from weather forecasters, government officials, environmentalists, geography teachers, priests and pastors, community elders, and victims. Of late, the ready verdict is “climate change” as the crisis unavoidably threatens every part of the world. Which has a passive, dismissive ring to it.
Blaming the Rains
Recently, as supertyphoon Carina still hovered in the National Capital Region and other areas in Luzon south to north, a guest weather scientist in the Facts First podcast, made my brows knit. Asked “Bakit Grabe Ang Pagbaha sa NCR?”, Dr. Mahar Lagmay, executive director of the UP Resilience Institute quickly blamed the high volume and intensity of rainfall. Cause and effect, plain and simple. Also, that with deforestation, water freely flows down instead of being absorbed first by trees, he added which is also true. As stunned comments from viewers were piling up in the chat box, and host Christian Esguerra itched for a more probative discussion, the weather scientist then responded to promptings about other factors that could be causing heavy and recurring floods.
So, surfaced the massive reclamation along Manila Bay which has reduced the sea basin for flowing waters from up and midstream many kilometers away. Land conversions which have covered many irrigation fields with concrete. Pumping stations and drainage systems that have not been upgraded. And the still improving technology of weather forecasting and the still-to-grow habit of turning to weather update apps to prepare people to avoid or lessen the rain aftermath.
Re-designing Flood Control Projects
Day before the typhoon and “habagat” winds, President BBM proudly reported (bad timing) in his third State of the Nation Address that over 5,500 flood control projects had been completed (no duration mentioned) and more still underway. While Carina was raging, he also visited some flooded areas and declared that he wants to re-examine designs of flood control projects as the present may no longer be as responsive. Senator Chiz Escudero also mentioned later in ANC’s Headstart that there is a budget of P1.14 Trillion allocated for flood control projects from 2015 to 2024.
People who directly suffer from floods including sympathizers will dismiss these as usual political sound bytes. And raise more serious questions themselves: Are the flood control funds all used for such purpose, and include addressing aggravating factors like deforestation, non-environmental seaside reclamation, drainage system clogging, poor waste management, and riverside dwellings? Or are some, and even bigger chunk, of the funds diverted to other projects of the government agencies in charge? Is the budget dangled by the administration’s national candidates to communities that may result in bad election choices? Do local government units with a mandate to prepare for floods and manage the crisis use some of the budget for other needs that may benefit the leaders? Is the budget used for same mistakes in addressing floods?
And above politics, does the government and its weather/climate bureaus really have sound and advanced science to master-plan, mitigate, and control floods and other consequences of Nature’s havoc? ###
Erlie Lopez is a writer, poet, PR consultant, and environment advocate. Email contact: erlielopez@gmail.com
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