To be fair, the constant heavy rains over the past few days were the main cause of the flooding that has once again hit various parts of Mega Manila. News reports claim that the amount of rainfall that fell on Monday reached 201.7 millimeters from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
That amount of rainfall is almost half of the total rainfall volume of 455 mm from Tropical Storm Ondoy which flooded Mega Manila in September 2009.
I had been hopeful that a couple of major flood-control projects undertaken after President Marcos’ 2025 criticism of the ghost flood control projects would finally prove that if there is political pressure the problem would finally be remedied.
Unfortunately, the heavy flooding that occurred Monday seems to indicate that the projects have been overwhelmed by the unexpected habagat deluge.
However, I am not yet quite sure if it is fair at this point to make a call that the ongoing projects are a failure, as I had pointed out in my recent columns that some portions of the flood-control projects were still not completed and connected — particularly along the stretch of Araneta Avenue in Quezon City.
In fact, in the past couple of weeks of continued rains, I was already of the opinion that the completed portions were working. In a favorite crab restaurant along N.S. Amoranto in Quezon City, servers there told me that even with heavy downpours, the floodwater from Araneta Ave. no longer reached their place.
In Makati, just this week, while having dinner
at a Japanese restaurant in Little Tokyo, the servers told me they are glad that Chino Roces Avenue no longer floods easily following the drainage pipe installations and the raising and cementing of the road.
I also have to point out that the level of flooding — so far and crossing my fingers — has not reached the Ondoy level this time around in my neck of the woods, which may indicate that the improved floodwater drainage is already beginning to work.
Thus, per my assessment, the unusually heavy amount of rainfall brought on by the habagat is Mother Nature’s work, and is part of the environmental change that the whole world is experiencing, as the European continent experiences rising temperatures that has began to hasten the melting of their glaciers, with higher summer temperatures that match our tropical weather and has, thus, led to several destructive forest fires in Spain, France and Greece, while also resulting in drought-like low water levels for some of Germany and France’s famous rivers.
In Asia, early this year, we were initially fearful of a drought, with hot, searing summer temperatures and declining water levels in our reservoirs, as the rains that normally come in May, June and July weren’t as heavy, while the typhoon season seemed to be sparing us and pummeling Japan and China instead.
It turns out that the problem was not the heat and a water shortage, because what we now have is a deluge of floodwaters from the habagat.
But another major factor that contributes to the flooding is garbage.
We have all seen that following the floods, there was a massive amount of garbage floating in the Pasig River, and eventually when the floodwaters disappear, will be piled near the drainage area and were, in fact, impeding the receding floodwaters. That garbage is a mixture of plastic furniture, plastic bags, plastic containers, plastic tarpaulins, tin cans, clothes, tires and almost anything that was not secured properly.
We all see our garbage problem every day, yet we all ignore it and turn a blind eye to where it is hauled off — out of sight, out of mind — until the rains come and all that garbage floats back as a massive island of plastic and debris, clogging our drains, causing floodwaters to rise, and then piling up in a messy heap that will take weeks to dispose of — out of sight, out of mind... again...until the next heavy rainfall.
We all raise hell over the ghost flood-control projects and are mesmerized by the greed of the Department of Public Works and Highways. We cry out for political bloodshed. We all enjoyed the exposé on the ghost flood-control projects and the political fallout that has affected the country’s top government official and the ongoing impeachment trial.
But, and a very big but, is we all seem to ignore the mountains of garbage we throw out every single day, and basically refuse to know where all that trash goes to and how it is left to fester until we see it once again floating around in floodwaters.
Broadcast journalist Kara David has done a series of I-Witness investigative reports on the garbage problem and yet, the public and the government have not given it the attention and uproar of protest that it needs to be addressed. Her report has not gained as much attention as the massive spending that DPWH officials spent at the casinos and on lavish luxury items and expensive vehicles.
We choose to focus only on flood control, but we conveniently ignore our own contributions to the garbage that we throw out everyday, hoping never to see again, but are aghast when we see the islands of plastic trash that float around when the heavy rains come pouring down.
I think that it is time that the flood-control problem should be addressed hand in hand with all other aspects that contribute to the problem.