Dealing with floods

It’s like a broken record, a never-ending story, a scene from a bad movie that keeps replaying in a loop.

I refer to floods, which seem to be getting worse each year. In the National Capital Region and also in the provinces. Bulacan, Pampanga, Pangasinan experienced a real deluvio when torrential rains aggravated by water released from overflowing dams nearly drowned so many towns and cities the past days. With the disastrous effects of climate change upon us, these rainfall events will occur more often and probably with more force.

I see no real, concrete, do-able action plan from the government to address and solve this problem. There is a lot of talk, top officials “ordering” lower level officials to “study” the problems, some even to “investigate” what happened. While these officials do so in their safe and dry offices, many people are wading through waist- or even chest-deep floodwaters, seeking shelter on the upper floors or even roofs of their homes.

There are supposed to be quite a few pumping stations built in Metro Manila over the years, and these have indeed helped with the flooding problem in the city. While torrential rains may cause flooding in some areas, floodwaters recede quickly – except in pockets where the drains are clogged with garbage. That is not government’s fault; that is on us for indiscriminately throwing our trash.

There is a report about a 50-year master plan for flood control in the whole of Metro Manila, patterned after the Netherlands. I hope this really materializes, sooner rather than later, because going around during rains is getting to be more and more not just inconvenient but outright dangerous. – Gary A. Garcia, Novaliches, Quezon City