White elephants

My wife and I were giving a friend a ride home when we got caught in a heavy downpour. It rained like really crazy but it stopped as suddenly as it came after about half an hour or so and just when we were about a kilometer away from our friend’s house.

But before we could heave a sigh of relief, we were behind a line of vehicles backed up on a narrow stretch of road. At the corner ahead we could see the reason why: raging floodwaters. Fortunately because traffic was just starting to build up and we have a small car we were able to manage a quick turn-around.

I have been in worse flooding situations but in all of them I noticed gridlock to be at its worst and motorists at their most helpless. This time (of the BRT-LRT debate) around it occurred to me that neither BRT/LRT nor flyover/ underpass can untangle gridlock during floods. The multiple systems we need to solve our traffic woes have to include a drainage system as essential component.

Considering that we are in monsoon country where it rains heavy and for long periods one has to wonder why public officials are not giving drainage the priority attention it deserves. If we spend billions for flyovers, underpasses, BRT’s and LRT’s to ease traffic why are we pinching centavos and moving at a snail’s pace for a comprehensive drainage system when this not only prevents gridlock but also loss of lives during floods?

We were stuck in Riva Ridge not in front of Zapatera Elementary School. But I couldn’t help wondering how bad the flooding and the traffic were in the area at that time and why until now drainage remains a nagging problem to a city that prides itself in being child-friendly.

I am almost sure such a drainage system does not cost half as much as rapid transit or flyover-underpass systems. But even if it does cost more we simply must have it. We need it more essentially than we do rapid transits, flyovers and underpasses all of which could be rendered useless by heavy flooding.

I can’t think of a good reason for elected officials to ignore drainage. I can only suspect it is because drainage is built underground. Hence it cannot be used as election propaganda material. It cannot be credited to officials with such screaming signs as: “A Project or a Gift of Mayor/Congressman… to the people of...”

It is said there is no limit to what one can accomplish if one does not mind who gets the credit. So I get it. Elected public officials accomplish very little that is a fit to people’s needs because they do mind who gets the credit and build only what (including commissions) can be clearly credited to them no matter how irrelevant.

If you think about it, that is the reason why there are so many white elephants around.