Rains, floods, basura, plastics

In our area, the drizzle briefly came and left.

As we passed through A.S. Fortuna and Talamban, the skies remained dark but the rains did not come. It was surprising for us, therefore, to read the various FB posts that showed many parts of Cebu City flooded.

How much rain did the flooded areas have and for how long? Seeing the flooded areas is worrying. Will the flooding worsen and widen with longer/stronger rainfall?

How did the river communities fare during last Thursday’s brief rainfall? Did the regular river clean-up help in preventing these areas to be flooded?

We sincerely hope /pray that the past efforts to prevent/avoid floods in Metro Cebu will work and protect people and communities especially during longer and heavier rainfall.

The persistence of floods, however, clearly signals the failure or insufficiency of past and ongoing efforts for flood control.

And all flood control initiatives should factor in basura which is always conspicuous in every flood.

The continuing presence of basura during floods and even without floods is a challenging reminder and alert that past and ongoing waste management efforts still need to be intensified and improved. And a loud call for a more comprehensive/integrated/multi-sectoral approach to flood control, waste management, and, development of sustainable cities and communities.

Huge budget and personnel may be allocated for flood control and river clean-up management but all these may go to waste when basura clogs expensive drainage systems, rivers/esteros/and canals.

Year in, year out, despite the unmistakable lessons experienced and exposed every rainy and typhoon season, agencies and LGUs continue to do their own budgeted flood control measures separate from waste management, rain harvesting, multi-sectoral, public education, orientation and participation, among other inclusive, comprehensive initiatives.

As Pete Seeger’s song goes: “Oh, when will we ever learn? Oh, when will we ever learn.” Sooner, soonest, we hope?

Managing waste/basura during or without floods and rains also needs simultaneous, comprehensive/inclusive/integrated multi-sectoral efforts.

The prominent dominant waste management of most cities in the Philippines relies on truck-based waste collection/disposal, one that does not solve the problem at all. Best approach is to resolve the waste problem at the start, preventing, avoiding waste from being generated.

Also, since waste is produced by human beings, then to solve waste everyone should be involved in managing the waste that comes from their own hands/parishes/communities and institutions/businesses/industries.

In every flood, plastic wastes are ubiquitous. According to UN Environment Program (UNEP), “our planet is choking on plastic!” There is even now a new marine microbial habitat called the "plastisphere!"

Most common plastics are cigarette butts (whose filters contain tiny plastic fiber) followed by food wrappers/plastic bottles/bottle caps/grocery bags/straws, and stirrers.

While, admittedly, plastics are useful and convenient, however, their “durability and resistance to degradation,” make it nearly impossible for nature to break these down completely, through centuries even!

Plastic wastes are polluting land, water, and air, and harming people and our planet! Microplastics are affecting human health --now in our lungs/livers/spleens/kidneys, even in newborn babies’ placentas!

UNEP data notes that of about 36% of all plastics produced (in packaging, for food/beverage containers), only about 85% ends in landfills/or as unregulated waste.

Additionally, “the level of greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production/use/disposal of conventional fossil fuel-based plastics is forecast to grow to 19 per cent of the global carbon budget by 2040.”

Of the seven billion tons of plastic waste generated globally so far, only less than 10 per cent has been recycled.

Time to take positive action, again multi-level/multi-sectoral/inclusive/comprehensive/- stop plastic pollution at the source: changing how/and how much we produce, consume and dispose of the plastic we use!

Filipinos, especially, should decisively act now since in 2023, the Philippines ranked first, accounting for 36% of the world’s total plastic waste!