Water, a first concern
It is already late to plan our city to make it an ideal place to live in. That is if we take planning in the context of building a new structure on a raw piece of land. Urban planners assert that our city grew more out of necessity and without the benefit of deliberate effort to build a community. Our founding fathers, who had to react to emerging needs of their time, did not have the luxury of forward and anticipatory preparation.
The city's commercial area then, for instance, happened to be also our residential district. Do we all know that Barangay T. Padilla suffered that fate? Just observe the present surroundings of the public market and you would realize that residential homes clutter around olden concrete buildings that served as business centers. It was only when congestion began that the need to establish residential subdivisions pushed developers to hack nearby, if not adjacent, places where to erect homes.
But, if we take the word plan to mean like renovating an existing edifice, then it is timely rather than late. Indeed, our government leaders have no choice. They have to improve on what is existing in order to upscale our city. Their only option is to start looking ahead into the future and chart the destiny of Cebu City.
In all candidness, I do not have even the rudimentary education on urban planning that could have added to my legal profession but I see that the more exacting demand of planning our city has to be on its physical component. I trust that our experts can prepare the future of our city on a topic that should rank foremost in our priorities.
It is a growing phenomenon that water cascades from the mountains in increasing volume and mounting frequency. Weathermen keep warning us of heavy amounts of rains with which environmentalists alert us to foreseeable floods and landslides. This has got to be addressed with dire urgency.
The idea is to convert water from its otherwise devastating flood form into potable water. There must be a way by which the ever-increasing volume of water, otherwise wasted, can be stored for future use. I am told that huge dikes surround an ASEAN city-state. This is a modern version of the staggering walls built around centers of population of past civilizations. Floods being the modern scourge, these new dikes feed to a huge network of underground canal constructed throughout the entire breadth of the city. In turn, this canal system funnels to a gargantuan reservoir.
Three beneficial effects are immediately discernible. First, no matter how heavy the rains are in that city-state, flooding is prevented. It is quite unlike what we fret about each time dark rain clouds form over Cebu skies. Second, water is stored there. This is a precious commodity that we, in our city, seem not to value for we rather let it flow fast towards the sea.
The third effect is, to my mind, most important because it has far reaching consequence not only for present generation but for the succeeding ones. Each liter they use out of their stored water is one liter they do not draw from their ground source. When they keep their ground water level intact, they prevent the kind of seepage of salt water that we are experiencing here in our city. Our water experts tell us that brackish water, of the kind that we cannot drink, has inched deep into the belly of our city.
I will speak with actuarial experience. More than thirty years ago, we put up a water pump on the property of my in-laws fronting the University of San Carlos. Then, we could drink the water we pumped. Few years ago, the quality of water from the same pump has become unfit for drinking.
I am sure that the kind of expense this project entails is immense. But, that is not going to be the reason why our leaders skirt this issue. They should realize that the expenditure is not, by any means, going down with the passing of years. Let them find the kind of money today and launch this undertaking fast. In doing so, we address a major concern.
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