THE MONTH-LONG heavy rains in the evenings have indeed become number one on the list for Dabawenyos to consider, either when they are heading home or whether still deciding to venture out at night for whatever purpose.
As it is, I’m reminded of one former musician whom I met leaving the mall as he hurried to get home at dusk. He said that aside from his already fading eyesight, he wanted to get home early before the rains come. Apparently, the way home gets flooded easily, especially when there’s a heavy downpour.
That tells a lot, as it is just too bad for other commuters who rely on public transport alone. What is more unfortunate, quite a number of the city streets, particularly those located in the low-lying areas, easily get flooded, while in some of our barangays, the streets can easily morph into raging waterways, thereby making them virtually impassable to motor vehicles.
This is why lately, with the heavy rains in the evenings, it has become a common sight to see stranded commuters from both the workplace and schools lining the main thoroughfare as they head for home.
Of course, one cannot just simply attribute the cause of flooding in the city to just a single factor, even though on social media, it seems to be that way always.
The environmental angle is foremost, with our growing population as second and location as third. Through the years, we have recklessly, or rather irresponsibly, caused the denudation of our forests so that we’ve deprived ourselves of flora and tree cover for absorbing water from the hills and mountains. Our steadily growing population plus how we locate ourselves remain to be a rural planning nightmare.
However, the fourth appears to be most important, as it addresses how well we manage all these. And sadly, unlike in other countries where most of them have had proactive measures with regard to flood control, ours, plain and simple, suck, with mostly a patchwork mentality used in stemming the tide and a comprehensive multi-level corruption eating away at the very foundations of any true flood control effort.
This is why, whenever I read through all the flak our hapless (luoy-luoy) and hopeless politicians regularly receive in social media outlets, I guess no amount of symbolic protective headgear or umbrella can protect them from all that’s raining down on them. Truth be told, their image has now become synonymous with dirty money, their way of saving and saving for a rainy day.
