Urban horror stories
WHERE were you when the floods came last Halloween? It really scared the wits out of residents in Lanang, Buhangin and Sasa areas and caused lots of despair for trapped and stranded commuters.
I guess we were one of the few lucky ones who did not venture too far from our residence that night and just had to wait an hour or so in the restaurant for the normal six inches of floodwaters in front of our house to subside.
It was only in the break of dawn when we realized the havoc that the heavy downpour brought to the city and its residents as social media sites were filled with the horrors of the previous night. A friend’s restaurant was badly affected when their wine cellar was submerged, vehicles of a posh residential subdivision floated in deep floodwaters, usual waist high waters in a flood prone village reached lampas tao this time, tired and wet commuters stranded until the wee hours of the morning, families forced to spend the night in hotels or friends’ houses. Such were the horror stories of that fateful Halloween night.
After the anguish and the fright come questions on why it happened and who is to blame? The usual suspects like inadequate drainage systems, trash thrown in canals and the lack of priorities on solving the floods of the city were castigated and were crucified.
But who really is to be blamed? For one, let us blame ourselves for living in a floodplain. Yes, a large part of the built up area of the city is on a floodplain. As a flood plain, it normally floods in this area and we and our ancestors have chosen to live in this area.
Visit the city planning and development office and ask for the map which shows the soil map of the city and see the extent and location of fluvial soils or soil coming from the rivers. You will see that these are widespread in the built up areas of the city. It shows evidence that soil coming from the hills and the mountains eroded by rain waters were deposited by overflowing rivers all over the city. Do not ask me when it happened but I can tell you that sometime in the past thousands of years our rivers have overflowed not just once but several times. This happened in the past and will definitely recur in the future.
We humans should be humble enough to acknowledge that our so-called permanent structures will always crumble in the face of nature’s forces. Take for example the residents who claim that the small creek in their backyard has never flooded within their lifetime - humans live about 70 to 100 years only but the creek may have been there for the past thousands of years already. Engineers are always fond of trying to control nature by building hard structures to tame nature... But time and time again these hard structures have been leveled by earthquakes, tidal waves or super typhoons.
Let us be the wise man who built his house on stone than on sand to survive nature’s treacherous tricks.
Before buying a lot or building any structures please do your homework first. A wise friend of mine consulted me to assess the location of his lot. He applied for a locational assessment of his lot through the zoning division and was given information that his area was highly susceptible to flooding. He weighed his options - transfer to another lot or build a more expensive flood resilient house. He opted for the latter. He built it with three levels reserving the ground floor for his garage and storage area to minimize damage to his furniture and appliances. He also elevated his lot by about
two meters from the street level. Then came the overflow of the Davao River, his house was like a dry island in a lagoon. His next project now is to get lifeboats or rafts so that he can ferry his family to safety if they are trapped but he knows early evacuation is always the safest option.
My mom and dad also did their study before they bought the lot where they built our family house. It took them months and months just to look for the right lot. They wanted this lot in a high end subdivision but it was directly over the flight path and noise was unbearable so they looked for another one. They saw a cheaper lot but they waited until heavy rains came then inspected the lot and found that it and surrounding roads were submerged during heavy rains. So they opted for the lot where our present family home stands - near schools and workplace, free from floodwaters and unbearable noise from passing planes.
The local government can only do so much in preventing floodwaters when the houses and institutions are already built on a floodplain. Unless we have billions of pesos to spare, then we can construct drainage systems like in Los Angeles where vehicles can pass through the drainage systems or we can build dikes, locks and pumping stations like in London or in the Netherlands. As of now, these are just but a dream for the city but we can start by learning more about our situation.
Information where to locate your business and houses is available at the city planning and development office. I am very sure that our planning coordinator and our zoning officers are more than willing to provide you the needed information. All it takes is a visit to the right office so that you can be given scientific data and not rely on the mere guesstimates or uninformed choices. This will prevent future losses and anguish on your part.
The real horror is when we do not respect Nature’s ways as she always is used to having things done her way.