Title: Mcgowanjm Wire 2012 Source:
[None] URL Source:[None] Published:Feb 26, 2012 Author:Various Post Date:2012-02-26 09:15:13 by A K A Stone Keywords:None Views:1295647 Comments:2390
23 hours ago – Latest News Stories ... MANILA, Philippines – Let's get used to great floods. ... adapt to climate change and the only way we could be prepared for the impact of climate change is to accept that these recent developments in our ...
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We've altered 1/2 the planet, 95% expect 2 billion to be added in the next 25 years, and Now we're just going to have to get used to this.....
Interestingly, the Aquino Administration after just a little over one year in power was said to have summarily cancelled projects that aimed to construct flood-control infrastructure initiated by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The Pasig River winds generally north-westward for some 25 kilometres (15.5 mi) from the Laguna de Bay, the largest lake in the Philippines, to Manila Bay, in the southern part of the island of Luzon. From the lake, the river runs between Taguig City, and Taytay, Rizal, before entering Pasig City. This portion of the Pasig River, to the confluence with the Marikina River tributary, is known as the Napindan River or Napindan Channel. From there, the river forms the common border between Makati City to the south and Pasig City, followed by Mandaluyong City to the north. The river then sharply turns northeast, where it has become the border between Mandaluyong and Manila before turning again westward, joining its other major tributary, the San Juan River, and then following a sinuous path through the center of Manila before emptying into the bay.
The whole river and most portions of its tributaries lie entirely within Metro Manila, the metropolitan region of the capital. Isla de Convalescencia (14°35′26"N 120°59′20"E), the only island dividing the Pasig River, can be found in Manila and it is where the Hospicio de San Jose is located. Tributaries and canals
One major river that drains Laguna de Bay is the Taguig River, which enters into Taguig before becoming the Pateros River; it is the border between the municipalities of Pateros and Makati City. Pateros River then enters the confluence where the Napindan Channel and Marikina River meet. The Marikina River is the larger of the two major tributaries of the Pasig River, and it flows southward from the mountains of Rizal and cuts through the Marikina Valley. The San Juan River drains the plateau on which Quezon City stands; its major tributary is Diliman Creek.
Within the city of Manila, various esteros (canals) criss-cross through the city and connect with the Tullahan River in the north and the Parañaque River to the west.
The growth of Manila along the banks of the Pasig River has made it a focal point for development and historical events. The foremost landmark on the banks of the river is the walled district of Intramuros, located near the mouth of the river on its southern bank. It was built by the Spanish colonial government in the 16th century. Further upstream is the Hospicio de San Jose, an orphanage located on Pasig's sole island, the Isla de Convalescencia. On the northern bank stands Malacañan Palace, the official residence of the President of the Philippines. Also on Pasig River's northern bank and within the Manila district of Sta. Mesa is the main campus of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
In Makati City, along the southern bank of Pasig, is the Sta. Ana Racetrack and the Rockwell Commercial Center, a high-end office and commercial area containing the Power Plant Mall. At the confluence of the Pasig and Marikina rivers is the Napindan Hydraulic Control Structure, which regulates the flow of water from the Napindan Channel.
The Pasig River's main watershed is concentrated in the plains between Manila Bay and Laguna de Bay. The watershed of the Marikina River tributary mostly occupies the Marikina Valley, which was formed by the Marikina Fault Line. The Manggahan Floodway is an artificially constructed waterway that aims to reduce the flooding in the Marikina Valley during the rainy season, by bringing excess water to the Laguna de Bay. Tidal flows
The Pasig River is technically considered a tidal estuary. Toward the end of the summer or dry season (April and May), the water level in Laguna de Bay reaches to a minimum of 10.5 meters. During times of high tide, the water level in the lake may drop below that of Manila Bay's, resulting in a reverse flow of seawater from the bay into the lake. This results in increased pollution and salinity levels in Laguna de Bay at this time of the year.[1] Flooding
The Pasig River is vulnerable to flooding in times of very heavy rainfall, with the Marikina River tributary the main source of the floodwater. The Manggahan Floodway was constructed to divert excess floodwater from the Marikina River into the Laguna de Bay, which serves as a temporary reservoir. By design, the Manggahan Floodway is capable of handling 2,400 cubic meters per second of water flow, although the actual flow is about 2,000 cubic meters per second. To complement the floodway, the Napindan Hydraulic Control System (NHCS) was built in 1983 at the confluence of the Marikina River and the Napindan Channel to regulate the flow of water between the Pasig River and the lake.[2]
Before the mass urbanization of Manila, the Pasig River served as an important means of transport; it was the city's lifeline and center of economic activity. Some of the most prominent kingdoms in early Philippine history, including the kingdoms of Namayan, Maynila, and Tondo grew up along the banks of the river, drawing their life and source of wealth from it. When the Spanish established Manila as the capital of their colonial properties in the Far East, they built the walled city of Intramuros on the southern bank of Pasig River near its mouth.
After World War II, massive population growth, infrastructure construction, and the dispersal of economic activities to Manila's suburbs left the river neglected. The banks of the river attracted informal settlers and the remaining factories dumped their wastes into the river, making it effectively a huge sewer system. Industrialization had already polluted the river.[3]
In the 1930s, observers noticed the increasing pollution of the river, as fish migration from Laguna de Bay diminished. People ceased using the river's water for laundering in the 1960s, and ferry transport declined. By the 1970s, the river started to emanate offensive smells, and in the 1980s, fishing in the river was prohibited. By the 1990s, the Pasig River was considered biologically dead[3]
Bankoff, Gregg (2003). "Constructing Vulnerability: The Historical, Natural and Social Generation of Flooding in Metropolitan Manila," Disasters, 27(3): 95–109.
"Metro Manila is situated in a semi-alluvial floodplain formed by sediment flow from the Meycauayan and Malabon-Tullahan river basins in the north and the Marikina river basin in the east.
It encompasses a land area of 636 square kilometres, measuring about 20 kilometres in length along a north-south axis and stretching more than 22 kilometres at its widest.
The conurbation is open to Manila Bay on the west and to Laguna de Bay, a large lake, on the south-east.
As such, the metropolitan area now constitutes a vast urbanised drainage basin that experiences frequent inundations from overflowing rivers and storm waters that render the existing system of esteros (modified natural channels) and canals constructed during the Spanish and American colonial periods inadequate.
Despite the growing vulnerability of much of the metropolitan area, however, rapid urbanisation has continued unabated with residential homes, industries and commercial sites increasingly exposed to flood-related destruction."
While flooding variously affects all areas of Manila, some cities and municipalities are more vulnerable than others due to their location and height relative to sea level. Some 20 per cent of the capital’s 63,600 square hectares is designated as flood prone, of which 5,385 square hectares (41 per cent) are served by pumping stations and the remaining 7,715 square hectares (59 per cent) suffer frequent and long lasting inundation.
Areas to the east, south-east and south of the capital around Marikina, Pasig, Mandaluyong, Muntinlupa and Parañaque and especially those adjacent to Laguna de Bay such as Taguig and Pateros are acutely susceptible to flooding.
n some particularly exposed cities such as Muntinlupa and Taguig, all barangays (the basic unit of local government) are regularly inundated and the coverage of flooding extends to 88 per cent and 83 per cent of their respective land areas.
Flooding is not a recent hazard in the Philippines but one that has occurred throughout the recorded history of the archipelago: it is the result of the low-lying nature of much of the terrain and the frequency of typhoons. These typhoons do not necessarily constitute hazards as such and are, in fact, responsible for a significant percentage of the annual rainfall that makes the islands so fertile and thus ideal for agriculture. This fertility, in turn, encourages or at least permits demographic growth and the location of people in large cities such as Metro Manila.
The demands of this steadily expanding urban population for basic amenities such as water, together with the nature of modern development, generate environmental problems like accelerated subsidence and garbage disposal that, in conjunction with the torrential rainfall associated with tropical storms, aggravates the incidence and severity of flooding in the metropolitan area.
The concentration of employment, educational and health among other opportunities in the ‘big city’ only spurs more rural-to-urban migration, creates shortages of suitable residential land and encourages the occupation of areas more prone to flooding or that have important drainage functions.
The actions of governments and the technological solutions they mainly favour have only limited outcomes and may actually aggravate conditions usually to the disadvantage of the most vulnerable poor, whether urban or rural. The construction of vulnerability to flood in Metro Manila, therefore, clearly shows how societies and destructive agents are very much mutually constituted and embedded in natural and social systems as unfolding processes over time.
Heavy rain is no surprise in the Philippines - the country typically gets at least 20 typhoons a year - and some claim that global climate change is making the problem worse. Even if that view is wrong, clearly more can be done to diminish the effect of extreme rains, in Manila and across the country. To be sure, the country is a poor one, but that does not excuse the official failure to learn from history, notably from the 2009 Manila flooding which killed at least 460.
Despite solemn promises made then, low-lying shantytowns continue to grow, and rubbish dumped by their residents clogs drainage canals and sewers. Around the city, meanwhile, forested areas capable of retaining water in the soil, are being cleared to build suburbs for the affluent.
