Using judo to solve floods

Not really. There’s no discernable connection between martial arts and stormwater inundation. But maybe, we can learn a thing or two from the qualities that make jujitsu a little different from the rest. It’s in the way judo fighters utilize the power of the enemy in order to subdue them. Momentum, they call that in physics. You don’t block, parry, or resist the opponent’s force – you harness it, allow it to continue, and use it to your advantage and eventually win the match. With minimum effort, I must say.

It’s only an option, though. Too many smart solutions have been floated around ever since Ondoy and the recent habagat flooding in Manila disrupted the lives of the Filipinos in Luzon. What’s one more, if it can help a better understanding of the phenomenon, especially one which is not new and has happened countless times all over the world throughout history. Scientifically, flooding is governed by the same old set of rules of hydraulics and hydrology, only that its occurrence is far apart that we often get shocked.

Use the technique of judo, or, use the other regular martial arts which blocks and prevents opposing forces. In the national budget of DPWH, there’s a category called “Flood Control and Drainage,” one of those twin-words/phrases that people forget are composed of two words or phrases that may not mean a lot when used individually, but are usually actually dissimilar from each other. We understand “Clean and Green” programs, right? But we don’t have “Clean” programs, or “Green” programs, do we? They go together, just as “Peace and Order” is usually taken as one, not two words. Same as Flood Control and Drainage

But flood control is not the same as drainage. The root word of the latter is “drain” which is to allow floodwaters to flow as fast as it can to the sea, so that flooding won’t occur. But when it does, one tries to control it (or manage it). So a drainage infrastructure is not the same as a flood control infrastructure - the first facilitates water to flow with minimum impediment and as fast as it can to the nearest body of water; the second controls the water when it can’t, or is prevented to drain, so that it won’t overflow and appear in tomorrow’s headlines.

A seasoned environmentalist will tell you, “You can’t fight nature, you must allow it to take its course!” For thousands of years, rivers have been flooding specific areas all over the world, and they will continue to do that as a matter of course. That’s why all major river systems have flood plains – go to major rivers in the provinces and you usually see wide rivers with only a stream meandering in the middle. You can see this in Toledo City. The cross section of a river has a flood plain, with riverbanks on each side, with a dry season stream in the middle – sort of a river within a river. This is because seasons vary.

The option? Let’s get an old map 50 years ago, locate where the old waterways were, and build the present-day drainage infrastructure exactly along those lines – the same capacity, maybe even bigger. Allow the waters to flow; lead it along its natural course. That’s what they did in the Mississippi River decades ago - you can’t but surrender to nature. It’s expensive, yes, but not as expensive as rebuilding flood control structures year after year, only to be destroyed in the next “habagat” without even a whimper of a typhoon.

We can do an honest-to-goodness solution, build waterways where rivers were, or should have been. We can buy back the land – the power of imminent domain not only allows the state to release public domain to become alienable and disposable, it also allows it to get those back for the public good.

Or, we can do it the usual way – fight and control nature. As if we can win!