What an opportune time to begin this blog. Just five days ago, Ondoy (a tropical depression or storm), dumped heavy rains over Central Luzon to a record high surpassing the highest rate recorded by the weather bureau more than 40 years ago.
Floods coupled with strong water currents inundated most of Metro Manila and surrounding provinces. Lakes, rivers and other waterways overflowed washing out houses and buildings, and even entire communities around these water bodies.
A lot of speculation has already been made as to why this recent calamity happened. People talk of climate change, an unusual volume of rain water, water released from dams, clogged or constrained waterways and drainage, improperly developed and inappropriately sited communities.
I believe there is no single cause to which this calamity can be blamed. We have gone through this calamity and the exercise of preventing or solving this before. Instead of an eye opener, I would call this a stern reminder to all of us.
We need to be more sensitive to our natural & built environment. We have not done enough. We must exert more effort to understand, preserve and if possible, enhance role that our natural environment plays in the larger scheme of our built environment. Nature deserves more respect and attention than what we have been giving it until recently.
We need to re-examine our approach to planning & designing of communities. To not only look forward at the potential of a site for maximum use and economic gain, but to look at a site as an investment to an environment that can be safe and sustainably liveable.
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