I just read the editorial of MetroPost (Jan. 9) and may I share with you this observation? There’s one very important element that the editorial failed to point out: preventive intervention or acts by individuals or collectively to mitigate/minimize prevent the devastating results of disaster due to flooding.
I refer specifically to protecting our rivers (Banica Atong Suba) and waterways by making people realize that throwing their trash and garbage into rivers and waterways will prevent the free flow of water and this causes flooding.
Add to that the clogging of water drainages again caused by irresponsible disposal of personal and household trash, and that’s it, we have all these problems with flooding.
The editorial could have also touched on the need for behavioral change in the manner we treat our garbage, rivers, and waterways, watersheds and the enforcement of waste disposal regulations.
Bayawan City and Manjuyod are examples of local governments enforcing the laws and ordinances governing waste disposal, so why can’t Dumaguete and its 20 barangays do the same, ditto for the provincial government in its 557 barangays?
Behavioral change enforcement by the LGUs of environmental laws is most necessary. We can have the best Search and Rescue teams, and people providing themselves with “food, water, warm clothes for at least three days, fuel for cooking, flashlights, radio sets batteries and even inflatable boats” as the editorial suggested, but these are not the long-term solutions to the problem of flooding.
What if the floods last more than three days and will be like the deluge in the Old Testament lasting for 40 days and 40 nights? No Noah can save us…but ourselves through these two that I suggest.
I just felt there was something very important that was missing in your editorial.
Dr. Aparicio Mequi
Project Coordinator
Banica Atong Suba
