Floods

Last Thursday saw a mini-reprise of the horrific “Ondoy” storm and floods of 2009. Many of the main streets were flooded, and some of the notorious areas like Marikina had water rising almost two stories high. The heavy rains fell during the rush hours, causing a traffic gridlock that in some instances took nearly 10 hours to untangle.

Tropical Storm “Falcon” and the southwest monsoon spawned rainfall that reached the abnormal level of 44.4 millimeters in just three hours, way above the normal level for June of 10 mm per day. The flood kept employees in their offices for hours, way beyond quitting time. Motorists kept their engines running for hours, waiting for the gridlock to clear up, and some pedestrians waded through the rising waters just so they could get home.

As in the case of Ondoy, the heavy rains and the resulting flood caught many towns and cities unprepared. But apparently some cities did prepare for such an eventuality.

One of them was Muntinlupa City which enforced a landmark ban on plastics and polystyrene containers earlier this year. Muntinlupa Mayor Aldrin San Pedro said the ban was among the factors that kept the city free from flooding. Because the city’s personnel did a thorough cleanup, there was less trash on the waterways and rainwater flowed freely through esteros and canals and made their way to Laguna de Bay. Muntinlupa City has set a good example that other cities and towns should study and emulate it.

Some cities and towns in the metropolis have set negative examples. Almost all canals and esteros are fenced off and bear signs telling people not to throw their garbage in the canal. But people living near the esteros cut out holes in the wire fence and throw their garbage in the canal anyway. A good example of contrariness and indiscipline. They probably do not realize that they are harming themselves: When the rains come and the winds blow and the floods spread, their homes will be damaged, if not destroyed, and some of them could die in the rising flood.

An intensive and extensive campaign on the municipal and barangay level is needed to educate and to convince people to protect themselves by properly disposing of their waste so that they would not contribute to the worsening of floods in the metropolis.

Another major cause of flooding in both the metropolis and the provinces is the proliferation of water lilies or hyacinths. Feeding on the nutrients in the garbage that find their way to inland bodies of water, they have grown big, some several feet long, and have proliferated in geometric proportion.

The officials of Cotabato City have appealed to President Aquino to help them solve the city’s flood problem which they blame on tons of water lilies that are causing rivers to overflow. Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo said he believed the main cause of the floods were the water lilies on the Rio Grande. But the officials and people of Cotabato can solve the problem themselves. With the help of soldiers, policemen and civilian volunteers, they can clear their waterways of these aquatic pests. The irony of it is that on the same day that the problem was being discussed, two early morning TV shows indicated that water hyacinths can be a source of livelihood: they can be manufactured into bags, mats and other household articles that can be sold in markets and shops.

The flood problem could be mitigated if only national and municipal officials would take an orderly, targeted approach. We all know when the rainy season starts and we are given timely advice by the weather bureau. Why then not fix clogged drainage systems, complete unfinished road repairs and cover road diggings? Something should also be done about the traffic system to prevent a recurrence of the gridlock that kept thousands of motorists and pedestrians on the road for hours.

We have had a bad experience with Ondoy and other powerful storms and rains that killed scores of people and destroyed millions of pesos in property. By now we should have learned our lessons. Many big and ambitious plans were discussed in the months after Ondoy. Whatever happened to them? Shall we again do just a lot of talking after another Ondoy-type disaster hits us?