By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
So, here we are again: Habagat thrashing Metro Manila and many other parts of the country like it were a bully of a storm. The result: Flooding and landslides in the riskiest places to be during the rainy season.
Metro Manila’s flooding, however, isn’t just about rain. To a very shameful extent, our flood problem here in the big city is about rotten ways. There’s a dire lack of discipline, on-and-off waste management implementation, and of course — ang bida sa lahat ng bida — Metro Manilans who treat our cities like a giant trash bin.
Ask our mayors and our tongue-tied Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Don Artes. They’d tell you that what’s really aggravating our flood situation is people’s garbage.
While 71 pumping stations were operating at full tilt last week, the floods still swallowed streets. Why? Because Metro Manila’s antiquated drainage system, which is already over 50 years old, is clogged with garbage.
Check out the Manila Bulletin report of Aaron B. Recuenco, and you’d be astounded that when he talks of garbage, it’s not just plastic wrappers and crumpled pieces of paper. We’re talking sofas, refrigerators, planks of wood. Who throws furniture into creeks? We do!
On Commonwealth Avenue, where flash floods became radio talk and TikTok content recently, engineers found that the water lines were not blocked by MRT-7 infrastructure, as some claimed. The real culprit? A drainage outlet jammed with plastic waste.
And the same goes for the Skyway at-grade section: Talayan Creek overflowed not from rainfall alone but from being choked by litter.
Plastic packaging, styrofoam, food wrappers, old slippers, even appliances are being dumped in rivers, creeks, canals, and sidewalks. Most of the time we blame informal settlers for these, yessiree!
But there’s also a hefty share of dirt from middle-class households, businesses, sari-sari stores, convenience chains, and fast-food outlets. The guilt must be shared, because clearly the neglect is systemic.
So, let’s quit the “Grabe!” charade when commenting or sharing photos and videoclips on social media on what filthy ingredients are carried by floods and waters flowing through our waterways every rainy season.
I mean, how old is that adage, “Basurang itinapon mo, babalik din sa iyo”? Yet none of us seems to learn. Instead, we wade through this same story, blaming the government.
Admittedly, the MMDA and city governments all the way up to the national government (DPWH and Malacañang) are flawed.
But don’t expect them to work miracles if barangays and we, residents, dump trash wherever we please. No flood control project will succeed if we sabotage it ourselves.
Really now, flood mitigation costs billions, and dredging rivers is costly. It falls on the public purse — your taxes — all wasted if we keep treating waterways like dumpsters.
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