Better drainage, pumping stations not enough to solve Davao’s flooding woes – expert
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 29 September) – Improving drainage and constructing pumping stations may not be enough to address the worsening problem of flooding in the city, an environmental planner said on Thursday after a torrential rain inundated several parts of downtown Davao on Wednesday evening.
Lemuel Lloyd Manalo, program coordinator for Interfacing Development Interventions for Sustainability (IDIS) Inc., told MindaNews that more needs to be done to solve this problem since the areas in downtown Davao that are frequently flooded used to be wetlands, tidal marshes to be exact.
He added the city must improve on “adaptability and resiliency,” designing infrastructure and drainage improvement projects based on the “hydrologic characteristics of nature.”
“Considering the alarming studies on sea level rise, it is no wonder that our flooding situation is worsening,” he said.
He added the areas that were flooded last Wednesday were tidal marshes.
The entire areas in Bucana, Matina, Boulevard, Roxas Avenue, Uyanguren to Agdao are tidal marshes, he said.
“These areas are intruded by seawater when the tide is high and blocks the drain and sewerage resulting in overflowing of built canals,” he explained.
Manalo said improving drainage and building pumping stations are not “direct solutions due to the mass volume of high-tide water blocking the drain flow.”
The most appropriate action, he suggested, is to construct a series of man-built wetlands, detention ponds, and mangrove marshes next to the Davao City Coastal Road Project, a concept similar to efforts undertaken by Singapore and Sanya City in China dubbed “Sponge City.”
“If we have sufficient spaces designed to catch and allow high tide seawater to penetrate, it will disperse the huge volume of both tidal and flood water instead of clogging in just a conveying canal,” he added.
The coastal road is a 17.352-kilometer road project, stretching from Jct. Bago (south), Jct. Talomo, Matina Aplaya, Roxas Avenue to Sta. Ana Wharf toward R. Castillo Avenue (north) and is divided into four segments: Segment A – Bago Aplaya Times Beach, 7.620 km; Segment B – Times Beach – Roxas Avenue, 4.557 km; Segment C- Roxas Avenue-Sta. Ana Wharf Road, 2.026 km; and Segment D – Sta. Ana Wharf Road – Alcantara, R. Castillo, 3.149 km.
Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, still suffers from severe tidal flooding despite efforts to build tidal concrete dikes along coastlines, Manalo said.
Michael Cainglet, radio operator of the City Traffic and Traffic Management Office, told Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR 87.5) that several streets were left impassable by vehicles from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
He said the road near La Verna Hills Subdivision in Buhangin was impassable even by big trucks.
He added its personnel towed five vehicles in La Verna that were caught in the flood.
Dr. Jean Lindo, environmental activist who co-chairs Panalipdan! Mindanao, said what she saw in the flooding incident was a “paradox of development.”
The flooding incident left vehicles and commuters at a standstill for hours on Wednesday evening.
“We make decisions in the name of development but we are not conscious that the decisions are compatible with sustainable and inclusive development. We cut trees for the subdivisions, choose coal-fired power plant when a sustainable energy solution is available. We allow extractive industries to dominate in our daily lives, including local governance,” she said.
She said it is easy to blame deforestation as the immediate cause, but “turn a blind eye to the decision-makers in the business and government sectors who have the power and resources to prevent flooding.”
“Before I became aware about the ramifications of the so-called development, I almost believed that the kaingeros were responsible, when in fact their farming technology was sustainable and scientific. I was almost brainwashed by the corporate reductionism,” she added.
She said there is a need “for politicians to realize that their groupthink is dangerous.”
“The flooding that we experience is an example of the serious consequence of groupthink… as far as development decisions are concerned,” she said. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
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