Floods

It's a rainy season in the country. It's a flood season too, especially in urban areas. In Cebu City for one, a downpour always fills some streets with water impeding the flow of traffic and causing inconvenience to pedestrians. Yet Cebu City is lucky because flood water drains easily here unlike in other areas where it takes days, even weeks before dry land appears.

The reason is that a big slice of the city proper is a sort of incline plane. Starting from the mountain base in Lahug and Guadalupe to downtown area the landslides downward, thus preventing the formation of ponds with stagnant water.

Old-timers like me, however, have noticed that in the early fifties and sixties flooding in the city was confined to limited areas like the corner of Colon and Leon Kilat streets and portions of Borromeo Street. But now many parts of the city go under water when heavy rain comes. What's happening?

What's happening is happening in the mountains of the city. Time was when these were covered with trees and greeneries of various types. Now most of these highlands are either bald or filled with residential structures. What is left to hold rain water from cascading down the city proper? None. What aggravates the situation is that the uptown portions of the city which used to be open and uninhabited have been transformed into residential sectors with cemented byways which of course are impervious to water.

Are there more to say why we have flood in this “queen city of the south”? You bet there are. And immediately you think of our drainage system. Perhaps, very few residents know that such system is still of post-war vintage - under-sized culverts covered with concrete or asphalt interspersed with detachable slabs. Although there have been parts of the city where drainage conduits have been enlarged still more work has to be done.

What needs to be done is a total rehabilitation of the drainage system befitting a highly urbanized city. I'm sure most of our city officials, especially Mayor Mike Rama, have visited Singapore, or Tokyo or other upscale cities in Asia. In Singapore, for one, flooding is unheard of because they have constructed huge underground water channels in strategic places, conduits which also serve as fixtures for electric cable, or telephone wires.

The money equivalent of this project is no doubt enormous. But we have no choice but to bite the bullet, otherwise the Cebu City will be left behind.

Certainly, the city's drainage problem will hang like an albatross above the head of reelected Mayor Mike Rama. But it too is our own albatross and that of every reelected councilor, BOPK or otherwise. This mythical bird has been there for decades but previous leaderships had other concerns to attend to, thinking perhaps that piece-meal measures could serve the purpose. Now with climate change the urgency of keeping the city flood-free stares in the face of the new leadership.

It simply cannot afford to ignore the problem. It simply cannot say that other high end cities in other countries (such as Calgary in Canada, and some urban cities in Germany) have been flooded, so why can't we?

Although funding may be a problem, but a way can always be found if city hall officials will set aside politics and work together for the good of the city. One recalls that the other year the city council tamped down the proposed budget containing a big outlay for flood control projects. Unfortunately, the same klatch of opposition legislators will be sitting at the city council in the next three years. Will they go on with their tug-of-war with the Mayor, or will better judgment prevail towards collaborative leadership?

We hope and pray a new atmosphere of no-nonsense governance will come about for the good of Cebu City and its residents.