By Wayne Agramon
The country has been consistently attacked by several typhoons. And because
of the large amount of rainfalls, I have found that my beloved Cebu is turning
into pool of dirty brown water.
I went to Asiatown IT Park with my friends at noontime a few days
ago to have lunch. Rain fell heavily so we decided to ride a taxi instead of a
jeep. When we were near JY Square Mall, the taxi slowed down because water was
rising on the street. The taxi driver was apprehensive to move forward because
his engine might get submerged, causing the car to stop running.
As a commuter, I am worried about this growing problem I see in my
city. I already get annoyed when heavy rain drenches me. And as I take that
step down from the sidewalk to the highway to ride the jeepney, there is a
stream of murky water that soaked my shoes.
According to news reports, the city government has enforced measures
to mitigate flooding in Cebu such as dredging creeks and rivers and clearing
drainage systems especially in downtown areas where flooding mostly occurs.
Even so, these reports also say that despite the measures taken by the city
government, flooding still persists. Floodwaters reached knee-deep levels in
Mambaling, Cebu that people had to evacuate to the barangay hall due to the
strong water current of the river nearby. In Guadalupe Heights, Cebu City the
water even reached up to five feet high.
According to the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management
Council, floods in the Metro Cebu are caused by a number of reasons. One,
informal settlers form colonies near riverbanks, using rivers as dump sites,
crowding the passage of water and ultimately causing it to overflow. Two,
garbage is dumped everywhere, clogging up drainage systems and causing water to
overflow. Three, during heavy rains in upland areas, water drains towards the
downtown areas and since drainage systems are unreliable, the water overflows.
Drainage systems in the city can be inefficient but for as long as I
can remember, Cebu doesn’t clog up as easily as Manila does but recently, it is
moving towards a similar trend. I love living in Cebu City because it offers me
the comforts of city life without the unwanted conditions of congestion and
flood but that doesn’t seem to be the case nowadays. Manilenos suffer from heavy traffic, so do
the Cebuanos. Manilenos experience floods and now, so do
the Cebuanos. It seems like the Philippines’ second metropolis is moving on to
resemble the first.
It is sad, hateful even, to see a beautiful city deteriorate into a
pile of mess all because people living in it are too indolent or too
indifferent to care. How wonderful it would be if we Cebuanos would just
altogether realize the impending consequences of our actions and start caring for
the city we call our home. We should not allow this to happen. Instead we
should act on it by doing the following: Citizens should stop from indiscrimantely
throwing trash everywhere, informal settlers should transfer to the relocation
areas provided for them by the government and lastly, the city government must
conduct major infrastructural projects that can address the issue of flooding
in the long-run. A major overhaul of drainage system.
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