What's Going On?

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:

1. Massive campaign to increase the level of awareness of Metro Manila residents on the solid waste management;
2. Demolition of obstructive infrastructure along Metro Manila’s natural waterways; and,
3. 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…

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