THE MASSIVE flooding in Iloilo City on Monday night, August 17, with floodwaters inundating houses, footpaths, passageways and roads, is a stark reminder to the government that the people deserve more than simply accepting floods as an inevitable consequence of heavy rain.
Climate change is not an excuse: first, because the government can control the quality, planning and effectiveness of infrastructure meant to protect communities; second, because successive governments have been coddling the destructive corporations that caused the climate crisis.
When flood-control systems, drainage networks and other public infrastructure fail amid expected worsening downpour, the government must answer: Were these projects properly designed, built and implemented?
Billions of pesos in public funds have been allocated to flood mitigation infrastructure, yet residents continue to suffer from severe flooding. Some flood-control projects altered and narrowed waterways, or are made up of poorly connected drainage and sewerage systems, worsening water flow.
Other “flood-control projects” entailed the raising of roads to make them passable, but this left surrounding low-lying areas to catch and retain floodwaters.
Moreover, buildings and developments have taken up spaces that could otherwise absorb rainwater. Poorly planned and implemented infrastructure as well as unchecked development aggravated the very problem they were supposed to address.
The people have already suffered enough from the consequences of a corrupt system where bureaucrat-capitalists benefit from infrastructure projects conceptualized without transparency and genuine public participation and implemented without strict standards and requirements. When our health, safety and lives are at risk because of systemic theft, we must demand what is due to us. The people must exact justice.
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) Panay calls for a comprehensive and transparent review of infrastructure projects, particularly flood-control and drainage projects, across Iloilo and the whole of Panay. This review must examine not only whether projects meet technical standards on paper, but whether they actually work and serve the communities they were supposed to protect.
Failed, substandard or overpriced projects must be exposed and investigated, and responsible officials and contractors must be held accountable. – BAGONG ALYANSANG MAKABAYAN – PANAY <bayanpanay2014@gmail.com>
