By this time most of us are probably puking over the toxic politicking during last week’s devastating floods.
In fact, they were plain to see — the hatchet jobs born of petty political partisanships where, after everything is said and done, will all wind up in the trash.
Nonetheless, partisan politicking aids us in seeing that we still have no adequate answers to the burning issue of rising floods that will only get worse over time.
So what to do when politics is of no help? Where to turn?
Frustrated experts and policy mandarins, as well as the pompous few who hardly know anything of floods, don’t lack for solutions and opinions.
But what if the only way we can go forward is to throw out all our previous notions and beliefs about floods and really start all over?
It would probably be for the best. Unwavering fealty to illusions in the face of the crushing reality of rapidly unpredictable extreme weather events will eventually do all of us in.
In fact, there’s no shortage of extreme weather events. Torrential rains of recent years, for example, are increasingly breaking records. Last week, “Kristine’s” rains set a record of 528.5 mm in 24 hours in Daet, Camarines Norte. In comparison, 2009’s typhoon “Ondoy “dumped 455 mm of rain in just 24 hours on Metro Manila, while 2013’s typhoon “Yolanda” brought about 400 mm of rain to the Visayas.
Such unexpected massive walls of rain inevitably led to swollen rivers and creeks and rising seas, then to ferocious flooding, to overwhelmed people scrambling to the second floor, to helpless old people and babies ending up on roofs, to desperate cries for rescue, and then to screaming grief for the drowned and landslide-buried dead.
Missing amid all the human tragedy, however, is the fact that the hubris of present and past government functionaries and policy makers was so shattered, they are now either deflecting blame or keeping silent.
Which now evidently shows the limitations of their tired, hidebound solutions that “hard engineering” structures like dikes and barriers stop floods or that they evidently had weak or non-existent disaster preparedness plans.
Thus, renewed questions on the effectiveness of flood control measures is generally about exploring new and innovative ideas, of creative options beyond dikes, drainage systems and other large infrastructure to divert floods, tame swollen rivers and creeks and rising seas.
Which, experts say, can only be done if bureaucrats and politicians clearly grasp all local flood conditions. Understanding local hydrology and then designing specific flood control measures for those conditions seems the only way to drive the process of looking for new ways to solve the flooding.
After which, the crafting of a new and comprehensive national flood safety policy — which would not only obligate all of government to protect the people against floods but also create a new incorruptible governing super body with enough resources and using all the scientific data about climate change to get the job done, both nationally and locally — can be commenced.
On this, experts say that investing big now would not only work but would be more economical than responding after every flooding disaster.
In the meantime, while planning for the adoption of a very high national standard for flood safety, experts say strictly enforcing present laws on where residents can and cannot build is required, to the extent even of rewriting these antiquated laws.
We can no longer ignore, as one expert put it, “improper zoning, neglect of or outright disregard for environmental laws, and uncontrolled resources extraction.”
All these are tough calls. But these require our close attention, which only means that having dry feet during typhoons is ultimately not only the sole responsibility of government but of all of us by getting seriously involved. The fate of future generations is now our responsibility.