What causes flooding?
Many reasons have been given: improper drainage, improper garbage disposal, wrong (or no) land use planning, ongoing rapid climate change, etc. Those are all correct. But the bottom line of why there is flooding is really quite simple: Excess waters have nowhere to go.
Every problem contains within itself the seed of its own solution. The solution to flooding is really very simple: Give the excess waters a place to go. That is the function of wetlands, ponds, and lakes.
But what have we done? We have paved with concrete all available lands -- including wetlands, low-lying, and flood-prone areas – and turned them into housing subdivisions and commercial centers. In other words, where there used to be water, we built our human settlements. And then we complain that there is water in the form of floods. Sino ang tanga dyan? Ang tubig o ang tao?
Words of a knowledgeable Filipino
