Sustainable Solutions: Flood waters in Manila, Philippines

Chloe Finigan
Jul 25, 2017 · 3 min read
Source: CitiScope

Originally posted on: https://ourworldatlargeblog.wordpress.com/social-justice-essays/

In the Laguna de Bay in Manila, Philippines, the water supply is contaminated causing major problems. The city of Manila uses the laguna for waterborne transportation, drinking water, recreation and flood control, and the contamination is transported into the city causing residents to get sick and economic growth to be stunted. Manila is a growing city with new interest in business and real estate development, but the Laguna de Bay is causing an ecological and environmental issue for the booming metropolis.

In light of this problem, the Philippine’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) have executed more-natural solutions to ensure long-term effectiveness while saving the city money.

“The environment department has planted a small grove of bamboo trees to demonstrate how natural remedies could be easier, cheaper, and more effective in taming erosion, soaking up nutrients, and curbing siltation and plant growth that has been polluting Laguna de Bay and making it shallower.”

Not only is bamboo native to the area, but the shoots with slow erosion and absorb nutrient pollution making Laguna de Bay’s water cleaner, and increase it’s capacity to store floodwater. The city of Manila and DENR will invest 8 million pesos, around 450,500 USD, and create a sustainable solution.

The DENR has also begun removing fish farms on the river as the Laguna de Bay reserves 9,000 hectares (35 square miles) for fish farming, but 12,315 hectares (48 square miles) is currently being occupied. These shut downs are taking place despite the connections many farmers have to congress, who have been hesitant to push for the removal of the unlicensed fish pens.

Finally, the DENR has held clean up events with volunteers, working to increase drainage capacity by removing waste from the water. These sustainable solutions have brought together the community to utilize the resources already in place.

“We did not need a lot of big machines and heavy equipment to restore the forest,” says Sarah Charisma Alcayde-Agcaoili, who worked on both projects over the last decade and is the Ecopark director. “We did it with a lot of volunteers who worked with their hands and their feet” (Schneider, 2017).

This change is vital to the livelihood to the city. Manila has been growing at the pace of 200,000 residents annually since 1990, with one third of the metro area sitting in designated flood zones. These solutions will not only protect the current residents, but allow Manila to grow while employing sustainable solutions.

More importantly, these changes will save lives. Monsoon rains in 2012 caused half the city to flood and killed 20 people, and without proper flood water storage the increased velocity of storms due to climate change will only hurt more; even minor storms have caused more than just physical damage.

“It doesn’t take much now to put a lot of water in people’s homes,” says Herminio Buerano Jr., one of the region’s prominent environmental leaders, and the president of the Coalition of Clear Air Advocates of the Philippines. “It’s going to affect growth. At some point people will start moving away” (Schneider, 2017).

Although the fight is not over, the work in Manila has the potential to highlight natural fixes over environmentally harmful ones. The achievement of the DENR is a huge step in sustainable planning in cities.

References

Schneider, K. (2017, June 22).Manila hopes greening its shorelines will yield cleaner water and less flooding. CitiScope. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2h0FLEe

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