THIS is a short sequel to my article on challenges in urban development planning, starting from a critique of the recurring floods and sewage management problems of Bacolod City.
As I have said, I am not and I do not pretend to be an expert in the subject. I am more of a builder of communities, and by that, I always put humans at the center of the subject, and the equitable and dynamic integration of human beings, with the environment and the state in charge of the so-called social order.
Putting humans at the center of any development planning means not only ensuring them all the amenities and conveniences of modern urban life, but also living with dignity and in harmony with a well-cared environment free from deadly floods, landslides, extreme heat and other natural disasters.
Unfortunately, many of our urban planners and developers follow frameworks whose principal consideration are profits and super profits, cacophonic scenery and dull aesthetics.
They often complicate land use and development planning according to the interests of big business and foreign investors who have little regard for humanity and environment., if at all they have any.
They put industrial zone side by side residential and agricultural zones but with poor waste management and anti-pollutant systems, thus still affecting the neighboring zones, worse contaminating agricultural production in many ways than one.
They erect commercial buildings and malls in population-packed areas, suffocating already dense urban communities and slums with noise, toxic odor, waste, floods and other pollutants.
They introduce structures and systems that consume so much electricity and water, draining our water and energy resources faster than the physical development itself, and often leaving human communities and vast agricultural countryside with little for production and sustainable growth.
They establish government offices in highly commercial areas, thus conveniently inviting commercialization of any government-business transactions, either by a government official or a government unit.
In all, what we get is perverted and destructive progress causing more and worsening environmental and social devastation.
So here I am reminding everyone that building human communities takes more than the engineers and development planners’ mastery of sand, steel, cement, and the strengths and designs of structures.
We need an appreciation of our human communities, their fears, and anxieties, needs, hopes and aspirations.
We must always see the links between urban and rural, agriculture and industries, human practices and environmental condition, even the dynamic relation of the rich and poor, and proceed from there with fair restraint towards achieving a great harmony of our human goals and activities with the condition and demands of our environment.
We build communities not on the strength and designs of materials and structures, but on the strength of the unity in spirit and goals of human beings.
Johan van Lengen a practitioner of barefoot architecture always reminded his fellows that when we build a house, we are also building a home and that a grouping of homes, each with its own harmony, will comprise a harmonious community, a productive and healthy settlement of human beings.
I wish Bacolod City officials, and those in cities of the similar state, that they may take a longer look at the way they allow the kind of development in the places entrusted to them. (For feedback please email ombion.ph@outlook.com)