Cebu Lessons Learned from Uwan Super Typhoon

 

Back in California from the Porto Alegre Book Fair and visit to Sao Paulo, I'm now looking carefully at what Cebuanos suffered from the back to back typhoons that slammed my hometown of Cebu and dumped a lot of rain.

I am deeply sorry about the deaths and destruction. 

 I'm reading of people and the government finding someone to blame. A developer of terraced housing in the mountain right above the city is scrutinized. The government is also blamed for why waterways did not allow rain water to flow to the sea. Settlers along river banks and on dry river beds are blamed. Etc.

The way I look at this, there is no one situation nor entity to blame. Many contributed to the disaster, including people who built homes on dry river beds and river banks, people dumping garbage into creeks and rivers and on streets, government officials who did nothing about these, and more.

I have pulled out this 10- year old blog entry that I wrote about the creeks and rivers of Cebu. I have been advocating for clean rivers and creeks in Cebu for a long time now. Even then I could predict that flooding could become a deadly issue in Cebu.

 https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2015/06/cebu-philippines-cleanup-of-parian.html?m=1

I am deeply sorry for the deaths and destruction suffered recently because of the super typhoons, but I hope that moving forward, we can all do better for our environment and ourselves.

I am posting a photo I took 10 years ago of a creek in downtown Cebu that was clogged with garbage so that water could not flow to the sea. Informal settlers have dwellings over a creek! Why the city has allowed this situation for decades, I'll never understand because one can see that this is a dangerous situation. 

I'll stop now, but really hope that everyone will do their part to prevent or minimize future disasters.

#ceburivers

#PhilippinesTyphoon 

#UwanPhilippines

#uwantyphoon

#typhoonuwan

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