On Monsoon Rains, Flooded Roads and a Ton of Garbage

by Arnold De Villa
August 16, 2012
At around this time of the year, each year and ever since I can remember, our country experiences heavy rainfall, envied by those who suffer from the lack of it.
It is a blessing that allows for abundance of crops and sea life and other nature’s wealth that make life easy.
From this abundance, the misperception that water would always be good made people dangerously lazy and unmindful of the harm they do the environment. Forget about the trees that were cut… the cleanliness of rivers…the proper management of sewerage circulation… and the monsoon rains.
According to an Australian Network News there are currently 800,000 people displaced by the inundations that nearly swallowed Manila last week. Around half of them live in dire situations, dispersed in more than a thousand evacuation centers. CNN claims that 85 people have died while more than 2 million people were affected.
Tropical Storm “Saola” is not a stranger to Philippine Shores. Its predecessors, siblings and t kin have all wreaked havoc, worse than or as bad as it did. Images of people swimming through murky water or hanging out on rooftops have been a staple on weather reports. Our international neighbors have responded with a kindred soul, pledging assistance and financial aid while Saola finds its way through Taiwan.
When my brother and I were kids, we enjoyed the rain. We were never allowed to have a free shower on the streets like our neighbors did, yet we treated the flood like a personal pool. We built boats, fished for lost objects, made dikes and bridges and even allowed our pet fish to escape from us by letting its bowl spill on the ground. Like other school kids, we were thrilled that we did not have to go to school. As years passed, the once transparent water that entered our house gradually became darker. Then it became stinky and later turned disgusting.
Again, the blame game started. The government does not do enough. The city planners did not do a good job. The city engineers should be terminated. People who dwell in shanties across flood zones do not have any business squatting in water paths. We hear this judgment all the time, a quick reaction in diverting our faults to that of others. Everyone was to blame but our selves.
Monsoon rains are not an option. They cannot be waived or rejected. When they have to come, they come. Like the liquid that needs escape when the bladder is full and distended, monsoon rains will always be where it has always been. The rest depends on how we treat them.
As it is true that the Philippines have pockets of dense population scattered through tight spaces of urban subsistence, it is also true that our infrastructure has not evolved appropriately. Our development has been stifled by anecdotal corruption from one imperfect government administration to another. And as such, it seems that our odds for digression are more likely than our possibilities for a true progressive evolution. In the meantime, the scope of victims from natural disasters will slowly spread from those who are economically disadvantaged towards affluent circles who are still back home.
There will be a time when flood will reach the wealthiest subdivisions and swallow the most luxurious homes together with the shanties claimed from oversized sewerage paths. When that day comes, those who can afford to abandon ship will do so. And those who will remain will be left with no other option but to fight to survive.
Monsoon rains cannot be controlled. Flooded roads can be managed. And the tons of garbage can surely be avoided. Yet all these require more than what the government can do. All these demand a paradigm shift, a radical adjustment of perspectives and a thorough restructuring of values.
The spirit of helping the neighbor, the one we call “bayanihan” is admiringly present. Filipinos will help with an eager spirit those who are helpless when tragedy strikes. We will build the house of those whose houses were shattered. We will share the scarcity of our food to the next door neighbor whose children are hungry. We do respond with generosity and altruism when a specific moment demands us to.
What we probably do not do or failed to do or never did was to extend beyond our short term needs and focus more towards the possibilities of longer term problems. It seems that part of the Philippine culture is so attached to the gaiety of momentary wealth as it refuses to accept that such wealth could easily convert into poverty. And even if it sees this, the dominant reaction does not seem to extend beyond the needs of the individual. Hence, back home, we barely have structured social benefits in place. The concept is so remote that making social needs a part of a government budget seems strange.
The economically disadvantaged sectors of the Philippines are mostly the largest receptors of natural tragedy. Oftentimes, they are also the group that has received the least educational opportunity. Those at the other end of the spectrum seem to dwell in places untouched by excessive or misplaced monsoon rains. At least, it is rare that we see them on top of rooftops or wading through the streets.
Since the socially advantaged sectors are also those bestowed with a better education, it would seem more just that the larger portion of social responsibility be more allocated to this group. This would be the ideal, but for some reason it does not happen. Each and every Filipino is responsible for what happens to the Philippines. But each and every Filipino does not have the same educational or financial ability to mark a dent on changing the infrastructure. The vast majority can only be reactive towards the most basic human needs that require prioritized attention. Needs that will be realized as needs within a longer time frame are oftentimes abandoned to chance.
Hence, instead of the universal acquisition of wealth for a nation, we acquire a disproportionate accumulation of garbage. Summer will soon be over. Monsoon rains will stop for now. Babies will be born next year. Let them worry about future rains and flooded streets. Really?