It’s good that typhoon Inday was not particularly cruel on the Visayas. It entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility or PAR but headed near Batanes and Taiwan and then to China. It did prompt Pagasa to declare storm signals in some parts of Luzon and rain did fall in some parts of the country. But the wind didn’t touch Mindanao and areas of the Visayas like Cebu.
Still, many places were flooded, which showed us how much our flood control program has failed.
The Philippines has been hit by typhoons in the past but what changed or, should we say improved, in recent years is technology. The improved connectivity, especially with social media, has made the observation of the formation of and tracking of typhoons better.
Nowadays, I monitor typhoons using some social media platforms, unlike before when I only rely on radio and television. But monitoring using the improved technology has also become psychologically taxing. Well you gain some, you lose some.
As for gaining and losing, I like it that I now live in a relatively hidden and hilly part of southern Cebu where I feel a bit safer when a storm comes compared with our old place near a river in Cebu City. But sometimes I still think about flooding because while we live a bit far from the river in our new place, I could see how much government and people’s neglect is continuing to make communities vulnerable to weather problems.
People who own lots near the banks of the river in our place are continuing to build houses and fencing them without thinking of creating waterways that would allow water to flow to the river and out to the sea. Ending this practice, of course, starts with the lot owners then on to the barangay and municipal officials, then on to the environment and provincial officials and so on and so forth.
But if this malpractice continues, then flooding in our place is a possibility. Even now, because the path of the water to the river is blocked, the water flows instead on the road, which is what is happening in many areas of Cebu City.
I grew up in Cebu City so I know how much the drainage problem has contributed to the flash flooding we endure there. The best example is, of course, still Metro Manila where flash flooding is felt even when the rain is not particularly heavy. It is therefore not difficult to imagine the future of flash flooding in Cebu City and other urban centers in the country.
And yet officials only pay lip service to solving the drainage problem in Cebu City. If I remember it right, there were talks about funding a drainage master plan for the city when Tomas Osmeña was mayor. I have retired as a journalist but I have yet to see that master plan. Without a master plan, then the drainage problem will continue to bedevil us in the country.
Tomas is old and he functions only as vice mayor to Nestor Archival. Mayor Archival holds the actual political power but he seems to be a believer in the saying that a problematic roof only leaks when it rains. And drainage is only talked about when it rains, right?
