It seems we will have this every year: a tropical storm lingers, drawing in the southwest monsoon. The prolonged intense downpour submerges the metropolitan region and surrounding provinces, a center of gravity of our national economy. Millions are thrown into misery and billions in property and productive time are lost.
Ondoy in 2009 was of this sort. Last year, the actual storm was so insignificant, the devastating downpour was simply called Habagat (southwest monsoon). This week, Tropical Storm Maring lingered east of Batanes and produced watery hell for most of Luzon.
Most of the provinces in regions 3 and 4, and all the cities of the NCR, have now been pronounced in a state of calamity. Lives are lost. Property damage will be staggering by the time an accounting is done. Economic losses, including lost man-hours, will be incalculable.
In all three events — Ondoy, Habagat and Maring — the communities around Laguna de Bay were among the most devastated. The scope of the flooding appears to be widening after each event.
This particular aspect of the calamity might have been mitigated by far-sighted government planning.
Way back in the seventies, urban planners urged government to build the Parañaque spillway. There was a blueprint for that. Given our weak state, however, urban developers were able to push the plan to the archives.
Without that spillway, the Pasig River remains the only channel for draining the lake. Without dredging the river, its capacity to drain the lake and all the other waterways in the megalopolis is severely restricted.
There are 22 rivers flowing into Laguna de Bay and only one river (Pasig) for draining the lake out to the sea. Add to that the Manggahan floodway that speeds up drainage of the perilous Marikina River. It also speeds up water flow into Laguna de Bay.
To this day, there is no program for regularly dredging the Pasig River. True, this is an expensive thing to undertake; but it will help us prevent the calamities that claim a larger economic cost when heavy rainfall happens.
Laguna de Bay itself is a problem crying out for a long-term plan.
It used to be that the lake was 14 meters deep. Today, because of silting and fish pen activities, the lake is less than 3 meters deep. That means its capacity to hold water has been severely restricted over time.
Much of the lake, as we know, has been colonized by influential fish pen operators. These fish pens became more permanent structures over the past years. Although authorities have tried to dismantle these pens many times in the past, they remain as they are, testament to the political influence of those who operate them.
The fish pens have concrete bases and metal frames. Those structures trap debris, restrict water flow to the Pasig River and hasten siltation causing the lake to be shallower. Dismantling the pens will be a great test of political will on behalf of the larger good.
The previous administration had a plan to deal with the Laguna de Bay, made urgent by the deluge that was Ondoy. The lake will be dredged to its previous depth and then, in stages, a large dike will be built around the body of water. The dike will be filled with the dredged material and will eventually form a circumferential road that opens up the eastern towns now choked by limited road access.
The plan was drawn up by foreign engineering experts and supported by the Belgian government. Every aspect of it was thoroughly reviewed and perfected. The financing for it was finalized and the contracts signed.
If the lake is dredged, the fish pens will have to be torn up. The influential people who reap benefits from the illegal fish pens will surely exert every effort to prevent this from happening. Among them are names that matter in our politics.
When the present administration took over in 2010, the plan to dredge Laguna de Bay was arbitrarily scrapped. The Belgian government was shocked. The companies that have mobilized financing for this urgent project have sought international arbitration. The very costly proceedings have commenced, causing our government large amounts of money in legal fees. If we lose the arbitration case, the Republic will end up compensating the foreign companies in the billions without any dredging ever happening.
President Aquino justified the abrupt abortion of the project by saying that the dredging will have to be done over and over again. That is a limp excuse. All dredging programs require repetition because siltation happens all the time.
In the case of Laguna de Bay, it is a choice between dredging the lake at intervals or condemning the surrounding towns (and the entire metropolis, for that matter) to worsening flooding. Had the project not been abruptly aborted in 2010, it would have been substantially complete by now. The flooding should have been mitigated.
The dredged lake and, eventually, the dike around it, might have dramatically increased the carrying capacity of this body of water. In the long run, Laguna de Bay will be an important source of fresh water for the metropolitan area and surrounding provinces during the dry months.
Laguna Governor E. R. Ejercito is a strong advocate for dredging the lake. His entire province is now in a state of calamity largely because of the overflowing lake. As tens of thousands of his constituents huddled in evacuation centers, Ejercito declared he would take the matter of dredging the lake with the President.
Well, good luck with that.