EDITORIAL - Floods everywhere

If it is any consolation to those living in Metro Cebu, Metro Manila, and all the other major urban centers in the country that go under water every now and then in the perennial floods that seem never to have found any solution, the problem is no longer unique to the Philippines and other Third World countries.

Floods now also tend to ravage large areas in the developed countries, particularly Europe and the United States. Just last weekend, the floods have moved up and swamped the city of Calgary in the Canadian province of Alberta.

But sharing the same suffering and knowing we are not alone in distress is as far as the consolation goes. For there is a big difference between the floods being experienced by Philippine urban centers and those that are hitting the developed countries.

Philippine floods are largely due to a serious lack in flood control and mitigating measures, a lack that is exacerbated by a runaway population that knows no discipline, especially in the handling and disposal of trash and other urban refuse.

The floods that have started to make life difficult for people living in the developed countries are a direct result of global warming and changing weather patterns. In the Calgary incident, for example, an entire month's worth of rain fell in just a few hours.

Under such circumstances, no city, no matter how modern, can escape what nature has unleashed. Video images of the rampaging Calgary floodwaters are terrifying. If not for the clearly modern buildings that tell you instantly it is not the Philippines, that is precisely what the viewer would have initially suspected.

Anguished by their lot though the people of Calgary might be, at least there is one thing they cannot blame themselves over -- that their suffering was not for lack of anything. In the Philippines, on the other hand, it is not enough to just blame God or nature. There is always the element of human shortcoming.

The floods may be an act of God or an act of nature. But they are made worse by the human failure to provide proper regulation and control of dwelling locations, inadequate flood control and drainage systems, and the biggest culprit of all, the wanton disregard of people for the proper disposal of garbage.