IN his last State of the Nation Address, President Duterte urged senators to pass the National Land Use Act, a measure that had been approved in the House of Representatives but still pending in the Senate.
The President stressed the urgent need to put in place a national land use policy, “to address our competing land requirements for food, housing business and environmental conservation.”
He mentioned the environmental degradation that happened in Boracay, which was recently reopened to tourists, as an indication that the development of our lands should be undertaken in “a more sustainable and holistic manner.”
However, a national land use law will not just provide for proper land tenure and development of our tourism treasures. It can also help protect our flood plains from urban encroachment.
The government should not allow building in flood-prone areas. Thousands of people living in Metro Manila and other low-lying areas are vulnerable to flash floods because of unmindful concretization of drainage channels, lakebeds, streams and other water systems.
Local developers must show conclusive proof that their projects won’t worsen flooding or put people in harm’s way before they are allowed to proceed.
We have also seen what happens when streets, homes, businesses and parking lots are built near rivers that occasionally overflow. We have been warned previously, and now know through tragedies that have befallen our country, that such constructions can destroy floodways and stream channels that dissipate rushing floodwaters.
Local governments had wrongly allowed many buildings and developments to push through without considering the impact on flooding. We are not sure which flood plain rules are being used by various cities and municipalities, but surely there’s a need to change the minimum requirements developers must follow before they are allowed to build in flood plains.
The local governments cannot take a “project-by-project” approach to development. Local ordinances must be changed to reflect stricter standards. A National Land Use Act can make this happen.
Of course, not all types of development need to be banned, but certainly there has to be stricter rules limiting the density of development in sensitive areas. There has to be stricter controls on the management of water and drainage systems, as well as those limiting the removal of trees and other vegetation that help control flooding.
The United Nations has warned that rapid and unplanned urban expansion exposes cities to severe flooding and other disasters. Half of the world’s population now lives in urban areas, and that figure is estimated to rise 70 percent by 2050, the UN noted. Governments, countries and communities should be alarmed by the increasing flood risk and frequency of massive flooding where measures to address them are ineffective.
The Philippines is no stranger to catastrophic floods. For instance, in 2009 Tropical Storm Ondoy dumped half a month’s rainfall on Metro Manila in 24 hours. Metro Manila’s population includes millions of squatters, who were forced to flee their shantytowns lining rivers and sewers following relentless rains.
Aside from people living in makeshift homes along rivers and creeks, in constant danger of being swept away by floods, there are others living in danger zones, cities and towns that are vulnerable to landslides and flashfloods, according to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau’s geohazard map.
With a national land use law, the government can focus its efforts on uncontrolled urbanization, which has left many of our canals clogged with trash and our floodways and floodplains constricted by structures that should not have been allowed in the first place.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano