A MANILA-BASED climate and energy policy nongovernment organization on Thursday said that beyond hard infrastructure, effective flood resilience requires long-term climate solutions that integrate nature-based solutions, early warning systems, and community-driven initiatives.
Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) Executive Director Angelo Kairos dela Cruz said Metro Manila and nearby provinces have been experiencing heavy rainfall for almost three weeks now, exposing Filipinos to daily flooding that submerges their homes, disrupts livelihoods, makes commuting to and from work quite impossible, and leads to school cancellations.
‘The burden is not the same for everyone, as those with the fewest resources to prepare, evacuate, recover, or rebuild are often the ones who suffer more. This alone should signal the need for immediate action to at least minimize the impacts already being felt across different areas in Luzon, as climate science projections show that impacts will continue to worsen. We cannot afford any delay in raising our ambition to increase resilience without sacrificing accountability and transparency,’ he said.
Citing the first of the four-part Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released in August 2021, dela Cruz said scientific findings warned of how climate extremes-such as heavy rainfall, heatwaves, and droughts-are projected to become more severe and more frequent, as an effect of the global warming.
The report also highlighted that rainfall over land will become more intense and variable, with some areas getting wetter and others getting drier.
‘With the impacts we are seeing, which are endangering lives and livelihoods, being reactive will never be enough. What we need are long-term solutions that empower people and communities, providing them the skills and tools to face the impacts of climate change.
‘We recognize efforts made by the national and local governments in providing rainfall warnings and facilitating timely evacuations in affected areas. There is progress, but we should translate these experiences into real systemic change. As extreme weather events are a facet of the changing climate, planning cycles should already shift from a merely reactionary to an anticipatory mode,’ he said.
‘As investigations of flood control anomalies remain ongoing, we remind the Philippine government of its responsibility and accountability to Filipinos in ensuring that resources are properly allocated, utilized, and reported. Funds for climate action are limited, we have to make sure that every peso counts.’
He said, moving away from the fixation on hard infrastructure as the primary solution to flood control becomes imperative.
‘While hard infrastructure remains necessary, it is no silver bullet. Effective flood resilience requires a broader, systems-based approach. We have to prioritize and invest in long-term solutions that embed hard
infrastructure with nature-based solutions, early warning systems, and community-driven initiatives, maximizing what already exists in different ecosystems, backed by science-based ecological assessments,’ he said.
‘We urgently ask for the country’s leadership in ensuring that climate action efforts are moving forward at the needed speed and scale. The current impacts we are experiencing from Habagat should not be treated simply as a story about unusually heavy downpour; it is a result of years of insufficient planning, weak scientific grounding, and uncoordinated implementation. We can move forward; we already have the information that we need to advance effective climate action: heed the science, anticipate the extreme scenarios, plan and design around nature and local geography with local communities as partners, and mobilize resources with transparency and accountability mechanisms in place.’