Earth Day: It takes a village to be ready for next ‘Ondoy’

The escape routes have been mapped out. Fiberglass rescue boats, fabricated by the residents themselves, are on standby, and so are life vests and emergency kits. When the sirens go off, trained rescuers are ready to push out and pluck anyone out of rising floodwaters.

Residents of Barangay Banaba—a village of San Mateo, Rizal, that was swamped by floodwaters at the height of the highly destructive storm “Ondoy” in 2009—have been quietly preparing for another “great flood” by adopting a community-based disaster risk reduction (DRR) program.

As they brace for another rainy season, the village women are machine-sewing Tetra Pak “go-bags” which they can stuff with clothes, medicines, water, flashlights and other items in case they need to evacuate.

“We’re better prepared for another Ondoy,” said Noli Abinales, founding president of the Buklod Tao people’s organization that has linked up with Christian Aid, the British-based international development charity organization, to set up the Banaba Disaster Risk Reduction Project (BDRRP).

Virtual waterworld

Banaba is the first barangay to come into view in the drive from the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City toward San Mateo. With the Marikina River to its northwest and the Nangka River to the southwest, the village becomes a catch basin during periods of heavy rainfall.

When Ondoy (codenamed “Ketsana” internationally) began dumping rain on the morning of Sept. 26, 2009, a large swath of Metro Manila was quickly submerged within hours.

Banaba became a virtual “waterworld” though, surprisingly, it did not lose a single one of its more than 20,000 residents.

Credit that to the villagers’ grit and foresight, and Buklod Tao’s quick response.

Before dawn that day, as the rains fell without letup, residents quickly scrambled to higher ground. Those trapped in their homes clambered on rooftops, and hopped from roof to roof to get to dry ground. Others were plucked by rescuers on the boats.

“We had a template,” said Abinales, referring to the early warning system and evacuation plan that Buklod Tao had devised from when it was first founded in 1997.

“We applied it during Ondoy. That’s why we had zero casualty. We had six rescue teams, all with adequate equipment,” he said.

The problem was that only the members of Buklod Tao had a full grasp of the plan.

Comprehensive DRR plan

After the debris from Ondoy had been cleared and the homes rebuilt, Buklod Tao set out to devise and implement a more comprehensive disaster risk reduction plan in August 2010, aided by grants from Christian Aid. This time, it took care to involve everyone in the community. And the plan covered the whole gamut, from capacity-building to an early warning system and infrastructure, support for community organizing, science and research, and advocacy.

The first order of business was to map out the areas in the 312-hectare barangay that were vulnerable to hazards, mainly flooding.

Under the guidance of visiting French geography professor JC Gaillard, four groups of residents spent several days sketching the contours, delineating the streets and depicting the natural features of Banaba to produce a 3D map modeled on the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority’s topography map.

Rows upon rows of multicolored pins were tacked to the map to identify individual homes and the materials they were made of. The areas most vulnerable to floods, landslides or fire were marked with strings in different colors.

Flood markers under the bridges had to be updated as Ondoy had dumped an unprecedented 455 millimeters of rain in 24 hours and caused the Marikina River to swell to 24 meters above sea level, exceeding the Batasan-San Mateo Bridge.

The alert levels, which used to range from 16 to 18 meters, were upgraded. For instance, Alert Level 1 corresponds to 17 to 18 meters and alerts residents to prepare for evacuation. Alert Level 2 (19 meters) signals evacuation. Alert Level 3 (20 meters) calls for forced evacuation.

Low-tech system

The monitoring system is decidedly low-tech. During inclement weather, somebody is posted on the riverbanks to monitor the water level. Once the water breaches 19 meters, he radios the barangay hall and the siren is sounded. Since the siren is inadequate, members of the 700-strong Buklod Tao fan out in the village, and broadcast the alert level by megaphone.

According to the evacuation plan, residents are to shelter at the day-care centers and Banaba Elementary School, Doña Pepeng Elementary School and Sta. Maria Elementary School. If the very worst happens and these areas are submerged, they are to converge on the open parking lot of the Puregold grocery on the national highway for evacuation to a church or a three-story building across the Marikina River in Quezon City.

“We’ve distributed tarps telling them what to do in each scenario, and who is in charge,” said Abinales, a physical education teacher who trained in disaster preparedness at the local parish, and has employed everything he learned in Banaba.

But it doesn’t end there. The DRR program is taught through modules based on manuals from the Center for Disaster Preparedness at the University of the Philippines, followed by freewheeling discussions.

Explaining disaster reduction

Just recently, the Manila Observatory, in partnership with Christian Aid, assembled academicians from the UP and Ateneo de Manila University to explain the “science” of DRR to the flood victims. For instance, they were warned of the danger of building homes so close to rivers and creeks, and living in barangays crossed by an active fault line.

“The people have been sensitized,” said Abinales, who is a familiar face in environmental circles.

“In the past, everyone had to look out for himself. There was a time I woke up to find floodwaters under my bed. There were no warnings,” he said.

There are eight rescue teams spread out in the barangay, equipped with fiberglass rescue boats, ropes, life vests, megaphones, flashlights and emergency kits.

Boat-building

Using a borrowed mold, the residents fabricated the boats with the help of a car bumper-maker. The four-seat, subcompact car-sized, 5-kilogram boat looks rough but has proved effective in rescue operations.

At the height of Ondoy, rescue team leader Domingo de Guzman rode one of those boats to rescue more than a dozen neighbors before their homes were engulfed by floodwaters.

In addition to the six boats used during the 2009 deluge, Buklod Tao fabricated three more, including a 12-seater that was designed by the Maritime Industry Authority under the auspices of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). It was tested in a recent flood. The boat-building project was funded by grants from the Christian Aid and graduate students of the De La Salle University.

“This is sustainable technology,” Abinales said, adding that Buklod Tao could fabricate more boats if orders are made with the DOST.

To empower community

Aside from Banaba, Christian Aid has undertaken rehabilitation and DRR programs for Rodriguez and Taytay towns in Rizal province, and Novaliches, a district of Quezon City, that were also heavily devastated by Ondoy.

The UK-based charity helps the most vulnerable communities cope with disasters and adapt to the effects of climate change in the Philippines.

“The idea is to uncover all the roots of the disaster and empower the community to be able to deal with it themselves,” said Christian Aid senior program officer Alwynn Javier.

And Buklod Tao is showing the way not only in disaster risk reduction but also in sustainable livelihood.

Its headquarters of nipa huts on a Banaba hillside whirs with activity. Women drive sewing machines to produce bags out of Tetra Pak, including the popular go-bag that impressed tourists at an exhibit in Davos, Switzerland. Men can be seen composting dead leaves into fertilizers, while others tend a nursery garden where herbs, vegetables and saplings of native trees are grown.

“We’re through with our barangay. We’re open to working with the municipal government so this can be replicated in other barangays,” said Abinales.