Silver lining behind the flood

Businessmen should start looking at their own contingency plans in case disaster strikes again, like what happened with typhoon Ondoy that destroyed not only homes but business establishments as well. Damage to property is estimated at P8.3 billion, but this could go even higher as reports start trickling in from other areas devastated by the flood. And that does not even include the destruction caused by typhoon    Pepeng, with the agriculture sector obviously one of the hardest hit. Thousands of acres of rice and corn fields were destroyed, and people can only hope there would be enough supply of food at least until January next year. Otherwise, it would really be a bleak Christmas for many especially those who until now, could not return to their homes.

Reports indicate that typhoons would continue to hit the country until November, with two to three more typhoons expected this October. There’s a great possibility that flashfloods could happen again and next time, the effects could be even worse – which is why both government and the business sector should learn from all that has been happening. Considering the difficulty that people are experiencing in obtaining loans to help them rebuild their destroyed homes, private employers are thinking of forming cooperatives for their employees to help them cope with such contingencies as typhoons, earthquakes and other disasters.

Those involved in the property and development industry should also reassess their plans – and consider the necessity of providing easements and waterways especially in the so-called flood-prone areas like Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Marikina and certain parts of Manila like Sampaloc. It’s time to stop the practice of cutting corners just to save a few thousand pesos because the consequences would be more costly especially when disasters strike.

It wasn’t so long ago when the Cherry Hill tragedy in Antipolo happened – where heavy rains triggered a landslide that killed at least 60 people. According to reports, the low-cost Cherry Hill subdivision was located on a former lake bed, and was susceptible to water absorption with loose rock and permeable clay found underneath. Since the area is notorious for landslides, the developers dug trenches between the houses to divert a run-off, and to prevent rocks or debris from coming down the slopes. However, the trenches retained water which eventually seeped under the foundations which became even more unstable. As a result, incessant rains from typhoon Olga produced cracks on the roads and the walls of the houses, eventually causing them to collapse one on top of the other.

Our friend, architect Jun Palafox is right – what happened with Ondoy was not so much an act of nature but also the fault of government agencies and urban planners who disregarded a 1977 study that showed so many instructive details on how Metro Manila should be developed and what should be done to prepare it for floods, earthquakes and other calamities.

For instance, it was recommended that structures should be built above the maximum flood level of 17 meters and that there should be no construction within nine meters from the riverbank – which many developers disregarded. Worse, government agencies knew these strictures, yet they allowed subdivision development plans for houses below 17 meters. And while the Manggahan Floodway was indeed constructed for the purpose of diverting floodwaters to Laguna Lake, the other half of the recommendation to construct a Parañaque spillway to flush out excess water to Laguna Bay and the South China Sea was not made. 

Prior to Ondoy, property prices in Marikina for example were said to be at P8,000 to P15,000 per square meter, but real estate experts admit the prices are expected to go down because developers and home buyers are now having second thoughts about investing in the hard-hit locations. Naturally, there is now preference for sites that were not affected. As a matter of fact, the residents of Provident Village are themselves thinking of leaving their homes due to the recent disaster. 

I came across a paper about Metro Manila being the subject of a case study for an EQTAP master plan (an abbreviation for the very lengthy description “Development of Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster Mitigation Technologies and Their Integration for the Asia-Pacific Region”). According to the paper, Metro Manila is considered as a “unique example of the megacity in the Asia-Pacific region with high hazard, high vulnerability and high earthquake risk…” and that “increasing vulnerable constructions, increasing informal settlements in the forms of slums and squatters, unplanned growth of the city near the high hazardous areas have made the metropolitan area as one of most risk city in the region.”

There have been so many warnings in the past about Metro Manila’s vulnerability to earthquakes, and that a major occurrence – like an intensity seven tremor – could result in the death of as many as 35,000 residents and the destruction of thousands of buildings, roads and bridges, hampering rescue operations in the process, yet many local governments do not have contingency plans for such an occurrence. 

All over the world, so many natural disasters are occurring with more frequency than seen in the past. The worst thing that could happen is for natural calamities to be exacerbated by man-made “disasters.” Ondoy did not choose who to afflict. The floodwaters not only affected the poor but even the rich living in gated, plush subdivisions. Hopefully, there is a silver lining behind the flood – in the form of lessons that everyone, especially developers, learned from the disaster: that structures should be built according to standard specification, zoning laws must be followed, and most of all, that we must all be environmentally conscious.

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