Creeks, compliance, and common sense

THE RECENT flooding in Iloilo City’s Jaro district should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind: when a humble creek is ignored in urban planning, it can quickly turn from overlooked trickle to overwhelming threat.

Buntatala Creek — long dismissed as just another minor waterway — has again reminded us of its power. After days of heavy rain, five barangays in Jaro were submerged. While officials scrambled to assign blame, the creek did what neglected waterways do: it overflowed, aided by debris, siltation, overgrowth, and perhaps most damning of all — human neglect.

Despite a Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) report pointing out that the flooding occurred in the downstream portion of Buntatala Creek — where slope protection and drainage work have yet to begin — the political finger-pointing was swift. But the real lesson here transcends personalities or partisan posturing: creeks matter. And when we disregard the natural flow of water — by clogging, encroaching, or building without foresight — nature pushes back, and the damage is measured not just in property loss, but in public trust.

What’s equally alarming is the apparent lack of synchronization between agencies. DPWH district engineers pushing projects upstream, the city government alleging poor coordination, and barangay officials caught in the middle. Where was the integrated plan? Where was the environmental compliance? Where was the common sense?

We must stop treating creeks as nuisances or mere backdrops to development. These waterways are nature’s drainage system — crucial to flood prevention in low-lying cities like Iloilo. Protecting them should be non-negotiable. Compliance with environmental laws and land-use regulations must not be reduced to paperwork. It must be lived out in every phase of construction, from planning to implementation, especially in areas where flooding is no longer just a hazard but a recurring reality.

This flood, like many before it, was not purely an act of nature — it was the result of choices. Choices to delay drainage works, to ignore maintenance, to allow informal settlements or infrastructure to block water paths, and to disregard early warnings about subsidence and sea-level rise. In the end, nature doesn’t compromise. It simply responds.

So let this be the wake-up call: small creeks, when ignored, become big disasters. Iloilo City must place ecological logic at the heart of its development plans. Because in the long run, it’s not just about saving creeks — it’s about saving lives.

Nature ignored is nature weaponized — against the people.