The open canal outside my home has rarely overflowed, but in the past two weeks, it has already done so twice, after relatively heavy rains that it used to be able to handle. What is extra strange is that the drainage canal not only floods more easily now, it also takes much longer to drain, even after it was recently cleaned, most probably by the local government.
I don’t know if it’s climate change, if there is a blockage somewhere downstream, or if some sort of recent ‘flood control’ project has ended up making a problem where there wasn’t before, but it is quite worrying to see flood waters now rise much more quickly outside my home. It is making me consider getting some sandbags prepared, just in case I would need to dam up my driveway and gate just to slow down the flooding that would eventually end up reaching my home if it is not stopped.
Although the new flooding problem has not reached disastrous levels yet, which means it is already lapping at my front door, the rise in flood waters means that accessing the house when there are heavy rains now comes with the extra challenge of feet getting wet just to open the gate. That has happened twice in the past 2 weeks, after not having been a problem for quite some time already. I can only hope and pray that the source of the issue is found and remedied by the local government soon, because if it is not, then this resilient homeowner will have to spend a tidy sum to come up with my own climate adaptation measures.
This flooding problem that was not that deep of a problem before must be a common theme for many Filipino homeowners. We don’t know if there is a blockage downstream, if someone messed with the drainage system as they mindlessly rushed to purge their list of projects of ghosts that could ruin their careers, if it just plain old climate change, or if it just poor urban planning catching up with our towns and cities that thought that they could get away with having no master plans for anything.
Our government officials must be wishing that they could find the solution to these problems, especially if they were heavily involved in previous ‘flood control’ projects worth millions, if not billions of pesos, that are obviously failing to work as ‘intended,’ but the sad reality is that for most of us, there are no quick solutions right now, and to make matter worse there is extreme weather that is brought about by climate change and global warming.
Maybe we shouldn’t have built our towns and cities on floodplains. Maybe we shouldn’t have blocked waterways. Maybe we shouldn’t have cemented over everything in the name of urbanization. Whatever our public officials are trying to do now to stop our communities from flooding so easily is much more difficult because of all the wrong practices that they tolerated and turned a blind eye to in the past.
Aside from the ignorance and lack of foresight, there is also greed. This is what happens when government officials have the wrong priorities. They build projects not because there is a comprehensive, science-based master plan, but because there is a budget that they have to spend, mindlessly if necessary, because if you come to think of it, spending the budget also means getting to pocket the standardized kickbacks.
Our government is so steeped in their tradition of corruption that budgets are most likely based on what the corrupt can earn, and not on what our communities actually need. That is how it works for flood control and all sorts of public works and highways, including the bridges that go nowhere and the perfectly ok roads that suddenly undergo regular ‘maintenance.’ The benefit to the taxpayer and the constituents is only secondary to the benefit to the secret bank account of the so-called public servants. That is why we get projects that aren’t given too much thought, foresight, or planning. It’s just a mishmash of construction proposals that are approved because it looks good on paper and pays well.
In the case of my newfound flooding, I am still hoping that there is just a clog somewhere down the line, and that the local government rectifies the issue soon. However, if I am going to lengthen my horizon, I also have to be hopeful that whatever current or future flood control projects that are in the works are science-based and expert-reviewed, because as the climate changes and the weather has the tendency to become more extreme, we cannot just rely on thoughts and prayers to save us from natural disasters that could be prevented or mitigated by science.*
