Prepare to retreat

Singapore–Our thoughts are with the families who lost their loved ones, mostly children and women, in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities, among other places ravaged by typhoon Sendong. Some were still asleep when raging waters dragged them kilometers away into the sea. Landslides in mining communities buried others. Thousands are displaced. Properties had been destroyed. No words or deeds will ever be enough to erase the memories of a harrowing nightmare and assuage the survivors’ pain, their losses and the tremendous sense of uncertainty in facing the future.

Sights of residents drenched and shivering in the rooftops when rampaging floods hit their villages prove how ill-prepared the local stakeholders, including local government units, are in calamities. Truly a disaster epicenter, our country is considered the natural laboratory for calamities, with onslaughts of an average of 20 typhoons hitting the archipelago annually. Despite this, we still have to learn in making our people resilient to weather aberrations and its consequences.

Climate change has and will make typhoons more frequent and severe, as we have experienced the past 10 years. But local authorities, except for the exemplary few, are still in a collective state of denial. Budgets of local government units are not attuned to what people and our life support system need the most. Politics, reelection and yes, unplanned, visible and huge infrastructures are more important in the hierarchy of priorities of politicians.

Republic Act 10121, known as the “Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010,” places upon the shoulders of LGUs the principal responsibility for ensuring that disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) is integrated in local programs and projects.

One of the declared public policies in the law is the adoption of  “a disaster risk reduction and management approach that is holistic, comprehensive, integrated, and proactive in lessening the socio-economic and environmental impacts of disasters including climate change, and promotes the involvement and participation of all sectors and all stakeholders concerned, at all levels, especially the local community.”

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda and San Francisco Vice Mayor Al Arquillano show us that participatory governance and DRRM, as a service to be delivered by LGUs, enhance resiliency and promote sustainability. Stakeholders, at all levels, especially the local community, are involved. How? Through creative local initiatives in planning, implementation and monitoring of programs and the activation of institutional mechanisms like local development councils.

The municipality of San Francisco went steps farther by creating the purok governance system, fully conscious that a sense of ownership over programs is instilled if people at the smallest unit converge and proudly craft their future and respond to challenges.

More than ever, if we are to have a holistic and integrated approach in adapting to climate change, an updated, proactive comprehensive land use plan is a must. Local climate change action plan need to be prioritized, and must include assessment of areas vulnerable to climate change impacts, and strategic mitigation and adaptation response including DRRM, with the active participation of all.

Sea level rise is another big problem that we need to address, and must be included in the plan. A one or two meter rise is not far-fetched in the next century.

Prof. Michael Orbach of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences of Duke University, USA, drove home the point before the participants converging in the Sustainable Environmental Management in Urban Asia Conference held last week at the National University of Singapore. In his presentation, “Sustainable Coastal Cities in the Era of Climate Change,” he stressed the need for cities to prepare for retreat. Twenty to 30 largest cities in the world are located in vulnerable coastal areas. Coastal communities in Cebu and other parts of the country and other parts of the world are already feeling the effects of sea level rise.

Professor Orbach raised questions that stakeholders must address. First, which areas will humans attempt to “defend” from inundation? Second, to what upland locations will human populations and human infrastructure such as buildings, roads and sewer systems move? Third, to what upland locations will our natural infrastructures such as mangrove forests and fringe marshes move? Lastly, what will we do about the considerable human infrastructure that eventually will be abandoned? These are questions that all must participate in answering.

While Professor Orbach was speaking, the irrelevant physical infrastructures such as flyovers, reclamation projects and underwater tunnels that our politicians are dreaming about, came to my mind. The politicians conveniently forget the global emergency that has wrecked havoc to life – climate change. What we need more than ever is a comprehensive sustainability plan rather than grandiose but hodgepodge physical infrastructures that hold no meaning or relevance to the people and the planet. Our legal framework even demands it.

I will speak more about the Conference and the special role that NUS plays in mainstreaming environmental education not just for students but the policy-makers as well in my column next week. I am most grateful to Prof. Lye Lin Heng, the Chair of the MEM (Master of Science in Environmental Management) Programme Management Committee and its officers, for the opportunity to discuss and share our experience in mobilizing citizen participation in waste management. Likewise, I am grateful to Elson Homez and Fraulein Quijada of Cebu Holdings, Inc. for providing me with the requested materials on the company’s laudable Sustainability Program.

It has been another enriching week for me in the city-state of Singapore where people and environment blend in harmony with one another. Singapore has proven that sustainability is possible, with good governance and corruption-free government as indispensable elements. In due time, we will be where it is now.

We can dream, can’t we?