I Am Blogie

Flood in Bangkal, photo by Jojie Alcantara

From the time I posted my Venice of the south? piece last April, Davao City has had a couple more floods, and Dabawenyos simply accept it as a fact of life here. But the other night’s flash flood — and the rain wasn’t even that heavy — caused loss of lives (25 as of this writing) and severe damage to property.

We can’t do anything about nature, but we certainly can do something about public infrastructure. Specifically, the local government unit of Davao City can and should. But what has it done?

How much more worse than this disaster is needed to happen before the government gets its act together?

People need to ask the difficult questions, otherwise, this government will simply get away with their ineptness at anticipating crises. Here’s one question: What happened to the money borrowed from LandBank for public infrastructure? This was reported on in 2009. And here’s another one: Why would the mayor say on TV that the city has no budget for flood control? What about the previous mayor’s allegedly unaudited intelligence fund?

Protect the environment!

Nature is trying to tell us something here. If we mess with the natural balance of things, we will pay the consequences. Wait…let me be more specific: the less privileged in society will bear the brunt of the consequences.

The city’s environment code has to be given more teeth, and law-abiding implementers. The city is growing exponentially, and with that comes greater demand for housing and other types of civil developments. That is a good thing for everyone concerned, certainly. However, we must always keep the natural environment in mind before proceeding with more buildings and roads and other public works.

It has been done successfully in other countries. All we need to do is learn from them.

As everyone probably knows, typhoons do not hit Davao at all. But that doesn’t mean we don’t experience flooding in some vital parts of the city. For years and years, flooding — due to bad drainage and sewage systems — has been a malignant problem, and nothing seems to be happening to completely address it.

We might not have typhoons or storms in Davao, but the infrastructure problems in Marikina and other parts of Metro Manila do exist here. Therefore Dabawenyos must not be complacent nor myopic: the kind of devastation caused by Typhoon Ondoy in Metro Manila is not so far-fetched as to be improbable in Davao.

Flooding in Ecoland subdivision

We have seen our share of flooded streets, and even kind of expect it in certain areas when heavy rains fall. No killer floods so far in recent memory, but at the rate our city is developing — ergo, generating garbage and wreaking havoc on nature — imbalance in our ecology could bring on a deluge we most probably won’t soon forget.

The good news is, there are champions within local government who are espousing awareness and preparedness. One of them is Councilor Leonardo Avila III, who has raised the red flag of climate change and its destructive effects. Avila chairs the committee on the environment in the Sangguniang Panlungsod. He has called for the revisiting of Davao City’s land use plan and the taking of climate change into serious consideration as a factor in development.

Much like the case of Marikina’s land development, Davao is mired in chaotic zoning and city planning. Looking at a map of the city, one clearly sees the hodge-podge arrangement of streets and public infrastructure. More serious than that, our watersheds, catchment areas (natural formations, such as valleys, that protect against flooding), not to mention hills and forests, have already been tampered with; ergo, making our city even more vulnerable to nature’s calamities.

Dabawenyos should rest assured that we have highly-trained and effective response teams here: the 911 emergency response center, the fire brigades, the local chapter of the National Disaster Coordination Council. However, prevention is still way better than restoration.

Due to what transpired in Metro Manila recently, we must, from now on, keep in mind how vulnerable we are. I totally disagree with the sitting president’s declaration of a nationwide state of calamity (much more with the proposed length of time it’s supposed to be in effect), but we mustn’t put it out of our minds that our safety and prosperity could be at risk if we do not prepare ourselves and our community. Again, we must not be complacent. We — the government and the private sector — must work hand-in-hand to plan well ahead, and get the plan implemented, in order to prepare for any calamitous eventuality that Mother Nature might throw at us.

Davao City still enjoys the distinction of being the only city in the Philippines with an emergency response center available on call 24 hours a day. Just dial 911 on any landline or mobile phone (toll free) in case of emergency.

Recently, the Davao City 911 Emergency Response Center opened a new operations hub in the south — a stone’s throw away from where I live, in fact. The new center used to be a public market. And, for the life of me, I cannot fathom why the city government back in the ’80s decided to put a wet market in the middle of a residential district. Needless to say, it was a terrible idea. I’m glad that the city has found a much better use of the facility.

Here are some photos I asked Chattee Lara to take of the new center located in Juna Subdivision, Matina.

From their new base in Matina, these are the city’s services that will respond to emergency situations anywhere in the city: Emergency Medical Service, Urban Search & Rescue, Fire Auxiliary Service, and the K-9 Service.