FLOODS in MANILA

Where does the rain come from? Waters from the seas, oceans, rivers, lakes, clothesline, etc are dried up by the sun in a process called evaporation and become clouds and when cooled off, fall as rain. Trees are called rain trees because they absorb water that evaporates again and falls down as rain. So trees bring about rain but prevent flood and drought. So, we need forests and trees in large parks in our cities.

Third world colonial cities are characterized by cancerous growth we call the urban blight. Even before the “Ondoy” floods, Marikina valley, Cainta, Pasig and most of Metro Manila are all blighted urban centers that are very evident when diagnostically viewed with our naked eyes from a higher ground and analyzed with an urban planning lens. Therefore, we should put a limit to the size of our cities and put a stop to building megacities. Cities should be small and beautiful.

I lived in Manila for seven years in the pursuit of studies and work that paved the way for my career track. Manila as the financial and political center of the Philippines has a way of trapping us. I hope our students go home after university studies and serve in the provinces where they are more needed. Manila as a large metropolis has really deteriorated over the years. Its carrying capacity for humanity has overflowed to the brim many times over. Father Ben Nebres, sums it up when he said: “ When one has to wake up in Manila at 4:00 a.m. to be in the office at 8:00 a.m. is not development.”

Although, the magnitude of the “Ondoy” flood is an all time worst since 40 years ago, floods per se in Manila is a regular fare since time immemorial.
Which is why, knee deep waters flooding areas near Quaipo and Espana in Manila did not get attention anymore in the light of the severity of the situation in Cainta, Pasig and Marikina where the waters reached the roof of homes. Yet, everyone was really caught unprepared for these kind of disasters that visit us with frequent regularity as if on schedule.

The electronic gadgets like email, cell phones and social networking were so handy over the weekend in connecting us with friends, relatives and fellow Filipinos at large. The television brought the horror of the floods to our living room. The little boy crying because his notebooks and school things were destroyed by the flood really broke our hearts.

I hope we really resolve to learn the lessons of this “perfect flood.”
Many areas of Davao City such as Bangkal and Bajada and even our central business district have been flooded in the recent past. During a flash flood last year or the other year, I was trapped in an office for hours because the roads were full of vehicles stranded by impassable roads due to knee deep flood waters.

We must flood our urbanization planning with thoughts of preventing floods because Davao City should be beautiful and safe befitting our reputation as one of the most livable cities in the world.