Ambitious dreams out of horrible disasters

It is quite awful to think that there is something good I can see out of the various calamities we are witnessing around the world. Without sounding morbid, I mean something good for our city. By observing what is happening to the many worldwide scenes, our leaders are presented with the opportunity to make sure that Cebu City charts its future out of harms way.

For instance, on television screen, we recently saw the horror of a typhoon surge, spawned by hurricane Ike, swamping a great portion of Galveston in Texas. (By the way, until that television coverage, I only knew Galveston from a song of Glen Campbell). Mighty waves, estimated at 15 feet high, easily lashed over the man-made levees and literally drowned the land.

On the other side of the globe, certain parts of India were inundated. They have not had this disaster for hundreds of years. The floodwaters have left hundreds of thousands homeless with those surviving not having enough food to eat. What was unthinkable was the cause of the severe floods. The river literally changed its course. It was so unprecedented because the new waterway was located about a hundred kilometers from its old course.

It is our fortune that our city has but a very short coastline. A greater part of it, serving as the pier area is, in fact, under the jurisdiction of port authorities. So, the elevation of this Cebu port has to be constructed appreciably higher than the sea level.

Not too long ago, a bit of news alarmed me. According to the report, owing to the melting of the icebergs at the poles, the seas are, in a period of about ten years, expected to increase its level by few feet. This report, attributed to knowledgeable sources, should have some scientific basis. What gloom can we find ourselves in should this forecast come true.

Our city authorities must plan this early. Pro-active is the key word. They should not wait for disasters to strike. With respect to the pier area, they need to be unrelenting in their official representations with national leadership to ascertain that our piers remain higher than the sea level, and stronger too. City officials have to consider that Cebu City down town, as well as many of the urban barangays, is contiguous to and its terrain levels with the pier. Should seawater rise higher than the pier, we can expect that many low-lying areas could get flooded.

Trees and catchments have to form part of the plan for our city. Trees, no doubt, stop the kind of cataclysmic soil erosions we see on television now and then and to a certain extent prevent that magnitude of landslide the Cherry Hills in Antipolo demonstrated.

Our officials need to layout aggressive projects on planting trees. But, they have be more inventive in instilling in the minds of our people the value of tree planting though because our past efforts have not approximated generous projections. For example, it is possible that an ordinance be passed requiring landowners to plant trees. Its reasonableness is obvious if this requirement is imposed on certain size of land ownership. 

Another way though is simply to encourage them to plant trees. No threats of penalty for non-planters. Only rewards. Tax rebates can be dangled to those who plant certain number of trees after a specific period, if only to make sure that the planted trees have grown.

There are identified parts of the city where water, usually from rain, funnels thru. In a sustained project over an appreciable length of time, our city officials can convert these areas into water catchments. The outright result of water being saved is that a much-reduced volume of water goes to our canals. Such consequence should arguably mean less incidence of flooding.

Our leaders should not just be depressed by the enormity of an ever-rising number of natural calamities. Rather, they should be motivated to undertake projects aimed at minimizing the impact of these disasters. After all, they can rest in the comfort that when they, on ambitious dreams, chart the destiny of our city away from the horrors of calamities, their tenure is likewise assured.

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