EDITORIAL - A sustained effort

An aerial view of the Napindan Channel and Manggahan Floodway will show the necessity of clearing the waterways of illegal settlements if flooding is to be eased in Metro Manila. The shanties clearly block the entrance to the floodways and hamper the flow of water to the sea. The makeshift homes are directly in harm’s way during floods, and the water, with nowhere to go, spills over even into communities that rarely or have never experienced floods.

Yesterday the Department of Public Works and Highways started evicting 2,070 families living along the floodways. Local government and police authorities with jurisdiction over the floodways should never have allowed the shanties to be built in the first place. Now that cataclysmic flooding from the rains of storm “Ondoy” and typhoon “Pepeng” have shown the tragic consequences of this negligence, the DPWH should not waver in its resolve to clear the floodways of illegal settlements.

The effort can succeed, however, only if the clearing of waterways is sustained, and only if the evicted informal settlers are given decent relocation sites. It’s not hard to figure out why the homeless want to build makeshift homes over waterways, despite the risks of being washed away during heavy flooding. Without the necessary vigilance by local authorities, new informal settlers will quickly take the place of the evicted ones. And those evicted and sent back to the provinces will soon be back in the city, mainly in search of livelihood opportunities.

Unless those opportunities are created and sustained, there will be no slowdown in urban migration. And the impoverished will try to occupy every available open space, including the banks of rivers, creeks and floodways. As the DPWH starts evicting the informal settlers, it should coordinate with the agencies concerned to make sure the settlers won’t be back before the demolition teams can even catch their breath.