WHAT’S GOING
ON?
by Antonio
C. Antonio
October 8, 2014
A 20-minute
torrential monsoon rain (meaning: falling rapidly and in copious quantities)
drenched the Makati City area yesterday afternoon. Something didn’t spell right since Typhoon
Ompong has just entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) and is not
expected to cause problems yet. Ms.
Charie Villa, my schoolmate from Malate Catholic School, shared the attached
ANC 24/7 photo on her Facebook wall at around 4:00 PM yesterday. It is the picture of a flooded Ayala Avenue
corner Makati Avenue. So what else is
new?
Flooding in
Metro Manila has seemingly been accepted as “normal” nowadays. But Metro Manilans are also coming to grips
with the fact that the flooding have somehow worsen this rainy season; and
going home after a day’s work is such a pain.
Places like Ayala Avenue have never experienced floods before. So what is really wrong? Has the rain water-bearing capacity of rain
clouds increased? Are the rain gods
angrier this time? These may seem
comical questions but there has to be a reason for the flooding in Metro
Manila.
The question
that persistently lingers in the minds of Metro Manilans is why do we have to
go through the same problem of Typhoon Ondoy of September 26, 2009 and Typhoon
Mario of September 18, 2014 that gave us immeasurable sufferings and
inconvenience. There has to be a logical
explanation for all our trials. Last
September 19, 2014, I posted an article “Typhoon Mario” (http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/2014/09/typhoon-mario.html) where I mentioned 3 issues that
seriously need to be addressed to solve the flooding problem in Metro
Manila. Please allow me to re-print some
parts of this article here:
“Metro
Manila floods are due to both natural and anthropogenic (man-made) causes. As for the typhoons being part of nature’s
system, there really is nothing much we can do but adapt to them. The subsequent flooding that torrential rains
cause goes beyond mere adaptation; therefore, mitigation should be the ideal
order. Serious concern should be put
into the following issues:
- Massive campaign to increase the level of awareness of Metro Manila residents on the solid waste management;
- Demolition of obstructive infrastructure along Metro Manila’s natural waterways; and,
- Dredging (cleaning out of waterway beds by scooping out mud, weeds and rubbish with a dredge) of our waterways (rivers and esteros).”
Let’s hope
that something is done so we don’t have to again ask the question: “What’s
going on?”
Just my
little thoughts…
(Please
visit, like and share Pro EARTH Crusaders and Landscape Ecology UPOU on
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