WHILE the rainy season has started last week, we can still feel the heat of summer in the province at least during noon, followed by afternoon showers and occasional thunderstorms.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) has considered the commencement of the rainy season with lesser tropical storms and typhoons however due to the prevailing El Niño phenomenon that is characterized by prolonged dry season.
The entry of some low pressure areas will now be occasionally heard in weather forecasts, with the fear for us for some developing into strong and devastating typhoons.
The onset of the rainy season shall mean wet and cooler surroundings, a respite from the past heat of the summer season. It means a sigh of relief to those who would not want to bear with the extreme hot weather.
For people in the low-lying areas, the rainy season may also mean the season of floods due to the lack of proper water channels to drain rainwater or simply due to clogged canals and esteros.
The Metro Manila Development Authority has discovered that many fastfood chains and restaurants are dumping their used oil and other liquid kitchen cooking wastes that when solidified, clog waterways. This result into flashfloods with streets converted into rivers and streams.
Recently, the government particularly the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the MMDA has started their anti-flood program in Metro Manila. It seems that the said endeavor has become an annual activity brought about by the continuous dumping of wastes in waterways including cooking oil products and the like.
The same is part of the preparation for the rainy season and has been made an annual undertaking. The MMDA has warned meanwhile all establishments to stop using canals as their dumping ground of their used oil, grease and other grimes. It’s high time perhaps that such establishments be responsible enough as legitimate businesses that are also affected when flood strikes.
When there is flood, among those who are adversely affected are the restaurants and yet they continue to contribute to the clogging of the canals and other waterways when they dump their oil and grease in the sewers intended to prevent floods.
In some provinces meanwhile, dredging and desilting efforts are still on the way in rivers, creeks and streams, again, as part of preparations made for the rainy season.
There seems to be no problem in the dredging and desilting activities undertaken until we realize that the silt materials they extract, is merely stacked on river banks that when a heavy downpour is experienced, the silt is eroded back into rivers and other water channels.
The rainy season on the other hand brings delight to farmers. Rains mean a stop on their irrigation facilities and some savings for their expenses on their water impounding facilities. Palay farmers have in fact started in their preparation of their farmlands, in time for their planting of their seedlings.
There are a lot of farmers who have been longing for the rainy season. The wet months however may mean differently to some because of the benefit or curse they will be getting from the rain.
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