Flood control must be on many Filipinos’ thoughts after witnessing the onslaught of Typhoon Carina and the southwest monsoon last week, which submerged many communities in Metro Manila.
Cebuanos are no strangers to flooding, a “natural” consequence even after a short but heavy downpour.
Last week, the Cebu and Mandaue City Governments met to jointly address flooding, reported Earl Kim H. Padronia in SunStar Cebu last July 26.
During the July 25 meeting participated by representatives of the two local government units (LGUs), the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 7, and the respective City Environment and Natural Resources Offices (CENROs), existing structures and measures were assessed for their effectiveness in preventing and controlling flash floods.
Although a number of flood control projects are lined up by the DENR 7 in 2024, the July 25 meeting also surfaced local executives’ frustrations with “unmet promises” of the DENR, some dating back to 2022.
For 2024, a 19-hectare reforestation project will be initiated by the DENR-7 and the Ayala Land.
Why is tree planting and management not emphasized enough by the government? Returning forest cover should be prioritized for funding and implementation, considering that creating more green than grey spaces will be a sustainable strategy to combat global warming and make settlements, especially in urban centers, more thriving and livable, especially for communities in low-lying, vulnerable areas for flooding.
Inevitably, in discussing how floods can be prevented or managed, the emphasis is on infrastructure that must be funded and installed.
While technology and innovations undoubtedly boost the capacity of communities to cope with emergencies and disasters during the rainy season, the pace of government construction and the quality of tax-funded structures leave many citizens cynical of and dissatisfied with the true interests actually served by such infrastructure projects.
There is even a glaring clash of priorities and absence of coordination among government agencies that propose structures to correct or mitigate a problem, which are directly contravened by other government entities carrying out measures that actually promote the problem.
For instance, the Santo Niño Parish in Poro, Camotes initiated last May a campaign to protect 743 trees that the Cebu Provincial Government and the Poro Municipal Government marked to be cut down for a 13.43-kilometer road-widening project.
Political willpower is critical for carrying out the legally necessary but politically risky decision to prevent people from settling near bodies of water, encroaching on the mandated easements set along shorelines, rivers, and streams.
Government leaders must accept the command responsibility to implement and enforce a solid waste management plan in their territories.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. blamed climate change and poor trash disposal for the severe flooding of Metro Manila last week, according to the same July 26 SunStar report.
Marcos has ordered a “review of the designs of some of the country’s flood control programs,” reported SunStar Cebu.
If public officials are truly serious and honest about addressing urban flooding and the web of complications and consequences, they will reflect on and first do something about the absence of forests, lost to a toxic sludge of private and personal interests overpowering public welfare.