Reclamation:  the good, the bad  and the ugly

Somewhere in the Netherlands, in that charming Land of Tulips and Windmills, is a place called Beemster Polder, touted as one of the world’s earliest large-scale reclamation projects.

Once upon a time, so goes the story, all the land you could see there was just water but in 1612, Netherlands drained Lake Beemster to develop new land and space for citizens.

The result is 7,208 hectares of green farmland.

Included in Unesco’s World Heritage list, Beemster Polder is touted as “an exceptional example of reclaimed land,” laid out in accordance with “Classical and Renaissance planning principles.”

In Rio de Janeiro, the coastline of the famed Copacabana area with its bustling promenade, is the result of land reclamation in the 1970s and in Asia, Singapore’s whimsical Changi Airport was built with over 40 million cubic meters of land.

There are many other notable examples of successful reclamation projects across the globe.

But how about here in our country of 7,100 islands and an often flooded capital city?

Actually, parts of Metro Manila were once upon a time bodies of water. There’s the Mall of Asia complex, for instance, which has become a favorite leisure destination among families especially on weekends.

Even earlier, way back in the late 19th century, the southern port of Manila was created through reclamation, pushing back Intramuros from the bay. Later on, the water around the Walled City was drained and turned into a golf course by the Americans.

Is this the reason Manila gets flooded in seconds whenever there’s a downpour? Maybe, maybe not, who knows for sure?

Today, these reclaimed lands are the giant patches of earth where our homes and offices – including our newspaper’s headquarters – now sit.

But in this era of a burning planet, can we afford more reclamation projects? Along the long, snaking Manila Bay coastline alone, there are more than a dozen ongoing projects.

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Toni Yulo-Loyzaga has the heavy task of finding out the answer.

Her department, she said at a recent briefing in Malacañang, is conducting a “cumulative impact assessment” of all reclamation projects in Manila Bay, with President Marcos giving her latitude to review these developments with a wider lens. This is good news.

At the very least, the agency must make sure proponents are compliant with the numerous environmental requirements.

Manila Waterfront Reclamation Project

Separately, I learned that the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) has recently called the attention of Manila Waterfront Reclamation Project’s proponents because of 11 environment-related concerns surrounding this particular project.

Proponents are the City of Manila and Gatchalian’s Waterfront Manila Premier Development Inc.

Here are just some of the issues raised by EMB in its notice:

Proponents did not undertake an Information, Education and Communication program to inform stakeholders; did not present a geotechnical analysis prior to project development; did not submit a reforestation program and were already implementing the project without an environmental guarantee fund that would supposedly cover damage “to life and property that may be caused by the project.”

The EMB also said the Waterfront Project started in December 2022 even if conditions to proceed have not yet been met at the time.

Sought for comment on these issues, the Gatchalian Group’s Atty. Juliet Santos, spokesperson with regards to the reclamation project, told me on Tuesday that they already had a technical conference with the EMB last week where they addressed all the issues and complied with all the requirements.

It was a matter of “updating compliance,” she said, adding that monitoring is continuous.

She also clarified that the project has not actually started. Only “pre-mobilization” works were done as authorized by the Philippine Reclamation Authority.

Atty. Santos invited me to their office to see that they have all the documents showing their compliance, enough to fill “two balikbayan boxes,” she said.

Moving forward, the DENR must indeed make sure that all these massive reclamation projects are compliant with all the laws and requirements – no ifs, no buts, no sacred cows.

Reclamation isn’t necessarily bad; we’ve seen successful projects across the globe. However, it can be bad and ugly when it causes more harm than good.

Years from now, Metro Manila as we know it will not be the same; large parts will be reclaimed cities because in this epoch of diminishing land, reclamation proponents offer their new developments as a solution.

But as I said, it is also the era of a burning planet. This means that reclaiming land from the ocean has its limit and in our case, numerous reclamation projects may be more than what our waters can take.

Because of a changing climate, sea levels are predicted to rise by as much as six feet by 2100.

The Age of Anthropocene

Storms, tsunamis and climate-related disasters are sure to pound our planet and it’s mostly because of man’s doing. Welcome to the age of Anthropocene.

Indeed, we have turned military bases into posh enclaves, campuses into malls, sugar lands into solar farms, nature parks into subdivisions and now, our waters into land.

There is that endless appetite to create land, and more land.

But to quote Leo Tolstoy, in his 1886 Russian folktale about a peasant’s greed for land and its consequences, I can’t help but wonder: “How Much Land Does a Man Need?”

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Email: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.