The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) announced that Typhoon Paolo maintained its strength of 120 kilometers per hour (kph) and gustiness of up to 145 kph. It moved north northwest at 15 kph., it headed towards Japan based on forecast models, and is expected to exit the Philippine area of responsibility by Sunday. It is is expected to intensify into a super typhoon in 48 hours as it propels towards Japan. With the weather forecast, Paolo brought heavy rain and when rains started to fall, most residents of the city, felt the dreaded occurrence of flash floods along the main thoroughfares of the city and landslides on the mountainous areas..
Going under water after rains is a repeated occurrence in the past. Do we engage in name calling and the finger-pointing again? Did we not have drainage and anti-flood projects undertaken by previous administrations? Take a closer second look, do not be hasty in blaming the drainage projects and previous officials and staff, did you notice the garbage clogging the streets, waterways and drainage? Is it not time to blame the garbage and those that throw the garbage. Do we remain in a post reactive positions, by just sending the sanitation crew to clear clogged drainage or waterways, or evacuating flooded areas? Do we see the need for more proactive, workable, and inexpensive systems to control floods and elsewhere, before the rains, not after, not when the rains and the floods had already inundated our environs.
Are we implementing strict guidelines for effective, proper garbage management? Did we educate all levels of society, from students in schools, to constituents in the barangays about: “ No segregation, no collection.” Let us start doing what is possible! By encouraging everyone to be responsible citizens, to do their share to stop flooding, to manage garbage properly, goes along way, to de-clogged our drainage system.
To reiterate, the motto: ”Reduce, reuse, recycle”, must be promoted through multidisciplinary approach, tapping community leaders, churches, schools, and civic groups, up to the barangay level, to mobilize and actively review and find measures to solve not only recent anti-flooding responses, but, more importantly, strategic actions towards preventing floods due to clogged drainage, but to agree on holistic approaches to proper management of waste. This is doable, and one of those starting young is twelve-year-old Miguel Teves, son of Mikel and Nadia, a 6th grader at Southdale Integrated School, by trying to achieve a plastic-free ocean, one at a time, beginning with the one along Silliman Beach. Miguel created #plasticfreeDuma — knowing how hashtags more easily get attention on social media — a movement that aims to raise awareness about the status of our oceans and the effects of single-use plastics.“ Plastic takes about 200 years to break down into tiny particles. It would be very tiny it could easily be ingested by fish and then fish could end up in your plates,” the sixth grader warned. Well said, Miguel, and now, all of us, should do our part. The time to start is now!
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