Cisterns, a renewal of an idea
Here in my column last Thursday, my heart warmed immensely when I wrote about the project of the Visayan Electric Company to put their transmission and other lines underground. I could hardly keep in check my happiness because the move of the power company actually gave vibrant life to the resolution that I sponsored as a member of the City Council of Cebu, more than two decades ago. It made me really smile while writing that article thinking that the reasons I imagined then were, after all, plausible. Charisse, my lawyer-daughter, whom I asked to read my write-up again for grammatical errors that, because of abundant glee, I might have committed, enthused my feeling, all the more, with "wow, that idea has been there for a generation!."
On the same day, the papers reported on the interest shown by almost everybody on cisterns. The story became a hot topic. In the social media, it became viral very quickly. As it developed, it appeared to me that there was a consensus on the need to require households to establish water reservoirs to store rainwater as a good way to prevent flash floods. And believe me, that news warmed my heart even more.
Here is why it was so.
In my stint with the city council, I had the opportunity to share thoughts with then Councilor Jesse Aznar, on my apprehension that with the balding of our mountains, floods were not far behind. Jesse headed a relevant council committee and so, despite his being with the majority, I discussed with him my twin proposals.
The first was to require landowners, in the mountain barangays, to plant fruit trees. My preference for fruit trees was anchored on the belief that farmers would not cut them, for conversion to fuel, as they would ordinary trees. But, to make the planting succeed, the then proposed ordinance provided for a period of close monitoring topped by tax incentives. For all the reasons that I could not then comprehend, the city council nipped it unceremoniously.
The other plan was to ask building owners to put up cisterns. It stemmed from facts I gathered from simple research. Shortly after the second-world-war, a large portion of our city was unoccupied. There were few buildings erected on ample space. When it rained, water just seeped thru mother earth.
The city then put up a system of sewers using culverts with two feet diameter. That size of our culverts was wide enough to absorb whatever rainwater the few structures then existing threw to the canal. So, when I was city councilor, there were no floods in the degree and frequency that we suffer presently. But, I saw flash floods were so imminent that I thought it was good time to prepare for. Regrettably, the proposal I then had suffered delays imposed by the ruling majority that it was overtaken by the end of my one term in the city council.
However, I saw hope in the enthusiasm showed by Hon. Ramon Quisumbing, now deceased, who became city councilor after my term. He sponsored an ordinance requiring buildings to put up reservoirs. It breezed thru the sanggunian, literally.
This must be the cistern that Cebuanos talk about. Since it is an existing ordinance, what our leaders need to do is simply to amend it to become effective in addressing the current problem of dreaded floods.
1. The capacity of the required reservoir must be specified. It has to contain the volume of heavy rain lasting for at least, one hour. Here, there are computations the city building official can do. The size of the cistern has to correspond to the land area covered by the building. So, if there should be a heavy rain, in that period of time, no liter would be thrown to the canal system.
2. This cistern requirement should be imposed without exceptions. No new building plans will be approved without reservoirs incorporated into them. In fact, all ongoing constructions with plans already approved by authorities should be asked to modify to comply with it. However, existing buildings should be given a reasonable period, like three years, to configure how to integrate it.
Indeed, the environmental apprehensions I entertained many years ago have become the current challenges posed by climate change. I certainly hope that our leaders react with positive vigor and making the cistern ordinance an effective tool versus floods is certainly a step in the right direction.
- Latest
