EDITORIAL - A worsening problem

There’s no escaping the floods, even in October, and even when El Niño is supposed to be affecting the country and triggering drought. Monday night the rain poured in Manila, Quezon City and points north and east of Metro Manila, tying up traffic. Wednesday night the South Luzon Tollway, including the Skyway, was again one big parking lot for about four hours, with motorists refusing to drive their vehicles through heavily flooded areas in Bicutan and Sucat. Roads leading to the airport were also impassable. Thursday it was the same story, but this time torrential flooding was also reported in Manila, Quezon City and places north and east of Metro Manila.

Flooding is nothing new in the nation’s capital. History books show horse-drawn carriages traversing flooded streets in Manila during the Spanish period. The flooding, however, seems to have progressively worsened as garbage clogged drainage systems and indiscriminate development destroyed natural catchments and drainage paths for rainwater.

In a country that has always received a heavy amount of rainfall for several months each year, you’d think engineers and contractors would have thought of factoring in adequate drainage systems. Yet reclamation projects in Manila Bay dammed up natural drainage along the bay area, which now causes regular flooding on parts of Roxas Boulevard. Commercial esta-blishments built on the salt beds of Parañaque now cause massive flooding along the roads leading to the airport. The city of Manila is hopeless; squatter shanties straddle major canals while buildings have been built over drainage lines. The result: flash floods after just 30 minutes of heavy rain. Northern Metro Manila became the Venice of the capital, going under water even during high tide, after construction of the Dagat-Dagatan development project destroyed natural water catchments.

Compounding the problem is the indiscriminate dumping of garbage. Many Filipinos still have trouble projecting the consequences of throwing their half-eaten sandwiches and soft drink cans out the bus window, or dumping their household trash in the nearest creek. Cleaning up our environment will require a sea change in public attitudes toward sanitation and hygiene. Minimizing flooding in Metro Manila will also require the installation of new drainage lines, plus better urban planning. This could take years, even decades. There are other alternatives: we can build a new capital, or we can move to cleaner, better planned places. Flooding is bound to get worse before we see any improvement.