First the floods, then El Niño

We seem to get it coming and going. The country was told to brace up for El Niño, but right now our problem is the floods that have been triggered by four days of intermittent rains. The death toll has reached 28 and the victims come from different parts of the country. How does one prepare for a drought when his problem is water, water everywhere?

In Metro Manila, not only classes, even government and private offices had to close for a day because it was impossible for most of the employees to negotiate the trip to their place of employ. As for the streets of Manila, the problem was the traffic caused by too many vehicles. With the rains, the traffic was further aggravated as many streets got so inundated that they were far more fit for boats than motor cars.

The worse part is that the flood problem has been getting worse every year. The time to take preventive measures is during the dry season but government offices that are charged with taking these measures do not move until the rains already start. It is only then that they seem to realize that the sewers are all clogged up. Worse are the esteros. In many countries, the esteros are tourist attractions. Tourists actually take boat rides on the estuaries. Here, they are garbage dumps and they are generally lined by squatters. Some esteros that existed since the Spanish times were literally covered up to accommodate an exploding population. We recall that the late Pablo Antonio, a national artist in architecture, was trying to tell the people in power that what Metropolitan Manila would need was even more esteros.

The rains have only begun. Here we have a rain pattern called siyam-siyam or nine-nine. It means that it rains for nine consecutive days and if it still rains on the 10th day, it means another nine rainy days.

When we were in the Department of Education, we tried to change the annual schedule of classes. We tried to make September, not June, the start of the opening of classes. But we were overruled. So now our classes open when the rainy season begins. People in the barrios who have to walk quite a distance to get to their schools either get soaking wet or skip their classes. We sincerely believe that the Department of Education can make an objective study of just when logically and ideally our schools should open classes.

There is nothing we can do about the heavy rains. But surely, some measures can be taken to alleviate the floods. And they should be remedial measures that should be done during the dry season.