Some of the suggestions are not new. One is to build drainage channels and floodways. Another is to implement urban greening and install environmental buffers. After every major flood to hit Metro Manila, proposals similar to those made by the World Bank have been put forward. Some of the ideas have caught on, with both private real estate developers and public land use planners increasingly aware of the need to incorporate flood mitigation in their projects. But a lot more must be done.
The World Bank recently launched a practical guide to integrated urban flood risk management in the face of growing populations and long-term climate change trends. The poor, especially women and children, are hit hardest by indiscriminate urban development, the World Bank pointed out. Urban poor neighborhoods are also the most vulnerable to destructive flooding.
We saw this recently in Mindanao, where the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan have not yet fully recovered from the cataclysmic flooding spawned by storm “Sendong” late last year. Heavy rains last week aggravated their woes.
Earlier last year, even the city of Manila was hit by a freak flood. A storm surge in Manila Bay, with waves up to 20 feet high, smashed into bayfront properties, causing one of the worst floods along Roxas Boulevard all the way to Taft Avenue.
The government started drawing up a comprehensive disaster risk reduction and management program after typhoons “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” struck Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon in 2009. The World Bank cited progress in recent years in disaster risk mitigation in the Philippines, including in legislation. But the destruction caused by Sendong shows how complicated flood risk management can be, especially in areas where watersheds have been destroyed and informal settlers refuse to leave flood-prone areas.
In its guide, the World Bank also proposed the development of flood warning systems, and the incorporation of flood avoidance in land use planning. These are not complex measures, and must be given priority. Last year the Philippines landed in the top five in a list of countries hit by disasters. This ranking is likely to continue, which should make disaster mitigation, particularly flood risk management, a national priority. - (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)
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