Flooding and lost opportunities: What Cebu can learn from BGC

My good friend and high school batchmate, Carlo Olano, of the social media food vlog Kalami Cebu, posted updates Sunday night on the Kalami Cebu page about the traffic at the South Road Properties (SRP), which was disrupted by severe flooding, particularly in the El Pardo area.

If you're wondering where is El Pardo at the SRP, it's the road that intersects the Cebu South Coastal Road and features an AI-controlled traffic signal system installed last July. This area is near commercial establishments as well as residential condominium properties.

Small cars were advised to avoid the route as the water levels made it risky to traverse. By 9:50 P.M., according to Kalami Cebu, several vehicles managed to cross despite the deep floodwaters, though the situation remained risky. By 11:30 P.M., the flooding persisted, leaving some vehicles stranded and forcing others to push through. Many people waded through the floodwaters just to get home.

Heavy flooding was also reported by netizens and online media outlets in the neighboring cities of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu. The heavy downpour forced organizers of big outdoor events planned for Sunday night to cancel, including the lighting of the giant Christmas tree at Fuente Osmeña.

Heavy downpours like the one on Sunday night are not new to us. In fact, when we were kids in the 1980s and early '90s, heavy rain was an opportunity to romp outside with our friends. What is relatively new in recent years, however, is the flooding in urban areas.

Some public officials would have us believe that flooding is an inevitable reality of urban life, claiming that no city in the world is immune to it. Don’t fall for that lie.

The causes of flooding in cities are well-documented in several studies, which identify a combination of factors, including rapid and unplanned urban growth, poor waste management, and government ineptitude (Abass, 2022). A city district lacking a proper balance between impervious surfaces (concrete) and permeable spaces (parks or tree gardens) is more likely to experience flooding due to increased surface runoff overwhelming existing drainage systems. Encroachments on natural waterways by large private commercial establishments and informal settlers also make the problem worse.

A pundit might say, “Show me a city in the Philippines that does not experience flooding.” Well, there is one, though technically, it’s not a city. It’s my new favorite spot in Metro Manila: Bonifacio Global City (BGC), which is part of Taguig City.

Before planners and developers began surface development in BGC, they designed and built a massive detention tank beneath Burgos Circle. This underground facility, approximately 12 meters deep, can store up to 22,000 cubic meters of rainwater, equivalent to eight Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to GMA Integrated News. During heavy rainfall, the tank collects excess water, which is gradually released into nearby creeks leading to the Pasig River and eventually Manila Bay.

Can Metro Cebu replicate the same solution? Maybe not exactly, as it depends on what is practical given our current urban design and realities. However, the BGC example demonstrates that creative solutions can be achieved when planners and developers come together and think strategically.

The problem is that, since 2019, Cebu City has been electing middling leaders who lack the vision and competence to anticipate and address new challenges arising from the successes of the previous “Ceboom” era. For that, I can only blame the previous Duterte administration, which manipulated the election outcome in Cebu City by using the police to suppress the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) --a betrayal that demands its own reckoning.