Why is manila always flooded

Since , their village has been sinking by around four centimetres every year. The troubles plaguing this village foreshadow future events in Metro Manila, which is faced with a multitude of problems including climate change and excessive groundwater extraction, the programme Insight discovers.

Watch the episode here. The Philippines is among the most vulnerable in the world to hazards such as rising sea levels, floods, earthquakes and typhoons. It gets hit by an average of 20 typhoons a year, which can flood coastal areas. And these tropical storms, scientists believe, are likely to become more frequent and stronger because of climate change. In the Manila Bay area, the sea level is rising four times faster than the global average rate of 3.

Excessive groundwater extraction has led to continual land subsidence, which will eventually result in flooding in many parts of Metro Manila. The growth of agriculture, fisheries and commercial industries that use large volumes of water also put pressure on the groundwater resources.

The problem lies with the regulation of the water extraction, according to Susan Abano, chief of the Policy and Programme Division at the National Water Resources Board.

The dumping of rubbish is another perennial problem in Metro Manila, whose estuaries and creeks are often clogged and must be constantly filtered by pumping stations to protect against flooding.

And when there are high volumes of rubbish or mechanical sorting problems, the rubbish also makes its way to the bay and worsens the siltation there. The challenges in Manila brought about by floods, overpopulation and poor traffic had actually been addressed in a World Bank-funded project in Eventually, rapid urbanisation and uncontrolled population growth — in a city of 13 million now — led to weak oversight of what needed to be done, which raises the issue of whether the existing laws were implemented well.

Scientific evidence has suggested that by , many of the Philippine coastal regions, including the Manila Bay area, could find themselves underwater if countries fail to mitigate the effects of climate change. Since , however, with President Rodrigo Duterte at the helm of the country, it has been reported that more than 6, flood control projects have been completed to protect flood-prone areas across the country.

This includes relocating government offices to other regions. By developing other urban growth centres, he said, this could reduce the primacy of Manila. In fact, Manila was not always the administrative capital; in , the seat of power was relocated to nearby Quezon City. November 11, Philippines, other poor nations struggle with UN climate fund.

Duterte echoes call for major economies' support in fighting climate change. PH shares fall anew as profit-taking continues. DOH says over 70 pct of 5, isolation beds remain vacant in Metro Manila. Valte assured that the government is "pursuing the tactic on many fronts. Metro Manila,Top Stories,metro manila,flood,dap,abigail valte. The ground is also sinking due to the weight of all that concrete, buildings and infrastructure mentioned in reason no. It floods because we have less drainage than before.

Reports have it that we have lost almost half of our metropolitan esteros and canals. We used to have over 40 kilometers of them and now we only have about Many have been lost to development, disappearing without a trace now it regularly floods where they used to be of course. It floods because many of those esteros, canals and waterways of our metropolis we have left are chock-full of informal settlers.

Because there are no alternatives for low-income mass housing, desperate people settle in desperate areas. These settlements have little by way of solid waste management and sewers.

All these go to the waterways, filling many of them so solid that dogs can cross over them. And we wonder why it floods. Many of these drainage ways and easements were identified in the several master plans made for Manila and Quezon City. Planners had allocated as much as 50 meters of space on either side of these but greed set in and these easements disappeared and what little was left are now our favelas teeming with millions.

The Manggahan floodway was only one half of the picture. It was meant to channel floodwater into Laguna Bay. That spillway was never built. To build it now would cause trillions and urban sprawl has seen its path covered with more millions of people and thousands of structures. It floods because what little left of our drains and flood control infrastructure is ill-maintained.

Reaching many of them is a problem because of informal settlements. Overlapping jurisdictions of local and national agencies conspire to dissipate responsibility and funding for this vital task of ensuring our drains are unclogged and free.

When the typhoons come, the gutters overflow. It floods because urban development is unplanned and unfettered. Mega-developments that see clusters of 30 to storey towers on retail podiums surrounded by hectares of parking cause havoc in districts planned with drainage infrastructure meant for low-density development. The final reason it floods in this short list and there are many other reasons is politics. Metro Manila is made up of 16 cities and one town Pateros.

Politics also conspires to keep informal settlers where they are because they represent votes. The ultimate fourth layer of discord is the fact that the source of floods is beyond the political jurisdiction of Metro Manila and in the hands of the provinces around it. Any sustainable solution to flooding must be at this regional context and the assumption that, within the metropolis, governance is rationalized to address this one big problem as one effort, not the effort of 17 government units, the MMDA and national agencies.

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