Human Rights Online Philippines

After the flood: What is to be done?
DEKONZTRUKTSCHON

The question is a familiar one which Vladimir Lenin asked about the people’s revolution, which laid the grounds and framework to pursue the proletarian cause of establishing a people’s state that holds the mode of production against capitalism. The question is rhetorical and indeed an intelligent one that emphasizes taking control of the situation. The same applies in the critical examination of the people’s actions towards natural disasters.

After a few days of continuous rain, the monsoon rains devastated Luzon with floods and landslides. Now, the water has subsided in most areas, and this is not the first time that the country has experienced massive destruction – inundation to some others. The heavy rains and flooding put the Philippine’s disaster risk reduction management centers into test, that came more urgent when Ondoy flooded Metro Manila and adjacent provinces in 2009. It also tested, the effectiveness of the government’s project NOAH or the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazard just recently in placed.

While households pick up the fragments of what is left in the floodwater, it is but high time to put forward solutions from the littlest things individuals could do and communities could contribute, and the systematic efforts institutions both private and public could share. Nobody wants to be submerged under water. Nobody wants to starve under a disaster. Nobody wants to lose a family member. Nobody wants to see a house torn by the raging floodwater.

Everyone needs safety and security. Hence, disaster risk reduction and management are vital to everyone. This has to take into consideration that the country is no more dealing with the usual type of disaster. The weather system has significantly changed. More volume of rains are expected, massive expanse of flooding in low lying areas, higher sea levels, greater winds, stronger quakes. Meteorological and geological statistics would tell that one natural event is like trying to beat another in the past.

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