CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION

NO HOLDS BARRED (038) October 27, 2009
By Ike Señeres

CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION

No less than MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando has confirmed my earlier prediction that the deaths from diseases resulting from the floods will exceed the number of deaths due to drowning during the actual disaster itself. Chairman Fernando has apparently gained some brownie points by being active in the rescue and relief operations, but will he be able to get himself off the hook amidst accusations that he was the one who allegedly approved the building permits of structures in Marikina when he was the Mayor there, structures that are said to have caused the worsening of the impact of the floods?

In the midst of the excitement and confusion over the effects of the floods, Fernando might have suffered a slip of his tongue when he told the story about his daughter being stranded in her steel fabrication factory. Could it possibly be the same factory that is now supplying the MMDA with most of its steel structures? If the answer is yes, then he might have just implicated himself in a case of conflict of interest. The conflict might just be a classic example of what the national democrats have been referring to as plain old bureaucrat capitalism.

Aside from the conflict of interest, Fernando should also explain what he meant by his earlier claim that he has already solved the flooding problem in Metro Manila, after spending billions of public funds and foreign donations to supposedly solve the problem. Is this the way we are going to let things happen in this country? That public officials could just make claims without having to account for it whether it is true or not?

Many Mayors also gained brownie points during the rescue and relief, but are their public expressions of helping the victims enough to get them off the hook for not complying with the laws that require them to implement waste segregation programs on top of putting up Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs)? Since the proof of the pudding is in the eating, Mayors who have not implemented the Solid Waste Management laws should be sued.

It would not be difficult to gather the evidence that is needed to file cases against these Mayors. No MRF is proof enough that they have not complied. Having trucks that transport garbage to dumpsites is also proof that they have not implemented waste segregation programs. While we are on this subject, I would like to again stress my point that a dumpsite is not the same as a landfill, not that I favor the building of landfills. If only the Mayors could build MRFs instead, there will be no need for landfills.

Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) are now the twin challenges that are facing the Mayors and Governors all over the country. While we are all captivated by the issue of election automation, we should pause for a minute to think about the automation of CCA and DRR programs as well, starting with the gathering of demographic and topographic data at the smallest village levels.

Not much thinking is needed in the automation of climate and disaster programs. It is already obvious that local authorities should put up Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS). While they are at it, they should enhance these systems with Short Messaging Systems (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Systems (MMS), to make these systems accessible to the millions of cell phone users.

It is a known fact that the topographic data that is now available in this country cover only broad areas that do not reflect the realities at the smallest village levels. It is about time that the local and national authorities start drilling down the data to the square meter level, to have the realistic basis to plan CCA and DRR programs. It is also about time that the task of data gathering should move down to the local authorities, at the same time requiring the national authorities to consolidate and integrate the local data.

What are we going to do with the human settlements that are now known to be in Low Elevation Coastal Zones (LECZs)? Are we going to drive out the people from these settlements? Since it is apparently too late to do that, we should look into the idea of using engineering sciences to remediate the topographies in these places; similar to what was done in the Netherlands, a country that is actually below sea level. With the elections coming, we should only vote for the candidates who will be capable of implementing CCA and DRR programs, no matter what political party they come from.

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CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL WARMING

NO HOLDS BARRED (037) October 22, 2009
By Ike Señeres

CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL WARMING

Climate change is definitely here, and it had to take a costly lesson for our country to wake up to this reality. It is here, and it is here to stay not unless we do something to prevent it. In fact, it will be here to stay long after we are gone, because it has the potential of destroying all life forms in our planet, but also the whole planet itself.

Climate change and global warming are two intertwined challenges to our survival, and it is important for all of us to understand the relationship between the two. There is actually as cause and effect relation between them, because it is global warming that causes climate change, among many other causes that could all be traced to environmental causes.

So much finger pointing and blame throwing has happened since the disasters struck, but it seems that the real culprits have yet to be known. Although we are all inclined to blame our government officials for their apparent lack of preparedness in dealing with the disasters, we should bear in mind that the disasters were only effects of known causes that could directly be traced to the behavior and habits of everyone in this planet.

While it is very easy for us to say that plastic bags are to blame for the clogging of the rivers and waterways, has it occurred to us that it is within our power to actually reduce the volume of plastic bags that are thrown away as garbage? No, I am not talking about recycling although that is needed too. I am talking about our propensity to buy and use consumer goods that use a lot of non-biodegradable materials on one hand, and produce a lot of carbon footprints on the other hand.

Years of neglect and apathy have caused the weaknesses and vulnerabilities in our environmental defense mechanisms. It will take years to rebuild and revive these mechanisms, but from now on and in the many years up ahead, we should know what really needs to be done, apart from knowing what we should expect from, and demand from our government officials in the years to come, starting now, today.

Small things add up to big things. In the same way that “small is beautiful”, small things could also add up to become ugly, if nothing is done to put order in the small things before they add up or pile up to become the big causes of major disasters. We need not wait however before they add up, because everyday, people are already getting sick because of air pollution.

Local mayors are damning the dams for the release of water that have apparently worsened the effects of the floods. Is their understanding of the problem of the floods limited to the volume of accumulated water? Since it is a known fact that many mountains and hillsides are within their own jurisdictions, has it occurred to them that it is actually their duty to do the reforestation and the other measures to prevent soil erosion? They should start by planting bamboos in the mountains and hillsides!

As big steps could start with small steps, it is now obligatory for all mayors to put up their own hazard mapping systems in their own jurisdictions. The core of these systems should be a Geographic Information System (GIS) that should also be supplemented by a Global Positioning System (GPS) and also equipped with a Short Messaging System (SMS). If any of the mayors would need technical support to install these systems, I am very much willing to help them.

In a manner of speaking, blaming the mayors for their lack of disaster preparedness without demanding complete climate change and global warming prevention programs from them is tantamount to letting them get away with homicide instead of murder. Murder it is, because many people died from the disasters, and more are dying from the diseases that came after. It is even possible that more will die from the diseases, more than those that died from the actual disasters.

First things first, the mayors should now implement the law that requires them to put up at least one Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). This does not require much thinking and planning, because the technologies are already in the market and are ready to be tapped. For whatever it is worth, putting up an MRF could become their signal that they are serious about putting into order their own local environmental management programs.

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REVISITING LOCAL GOVERNANCE

NO HOLDS BARRED (036) October 15, 2009
By Ike Señeres

REVISITING LOCAL GOVERNANCE

Rescue, relief and rehab represent a complete supply chain (CSC) that should now become the three “R’s” of disaster monitoring, management and mitigation. The latter should now also become the three “M’s” of the same CSC. In the first place, how many of our local government officials are aware that it is indeed a CSC?

A Filipina citizen who is working with the a United Nations relief agency just happened to be in the Philippines when the typhoons struck, and so she was asked to assist in the local rescue efforts, and also to assess whatever she sees. In her report, she said that she was SHOCKED to see the state of UNPREPAREDNESS of the local governments in dealing with the disasters, including the national agencies as well.

By now, the government is already into the rehab stage of the CSC, or at least it is theoretically supposed to. While it is supposed to be doing rehab already, it is barely able to do good in the relief stage. Meanwhile, the threat of another typhoon looms, and I wonder whether it is already trying to improve its capabilities in rescue operations.

The mandate of the government in the three “M’s” is to monitor, manage and mitigate. These three components are intertwined with each other, and the chain could not work if one component is missing. As I say this, I wonder if the national government is already planning to upgrade its weather forecasting infra, which is completely analog based as I know it.

Monitoring is the most basic of all the three components because everything should start with it. In this time and age of modern digital technology, it is a shame to still hang on to analog means, especially when the lives and limbs of our citizens are concerned. In this time, we should already be talking about REAL TIME data, because the delay in data could mean the deaths of more people and the destruction of more properties.

As I pondered over the apparent incompetence of many local authorities in dealing with the disasters, I came across the question of whether there is something wrong with our local government system, or whether there is something wrong in the way that we are electing our local authorities. I have already concluded that it is a case of the latter. We are not electing the right people who could deliver the right services to us.

In the coming elections, we should elect candidates from the political PARTIES that have a program of managing all aspects of local governance. The emphasis here should be on the PARTIES, because from now on, we should proceed on the presumption that no single individual is capable of planning and implementing good governance programs, no matter how good or how popular he or she is.

The core of every good management program should always be a good plan that is both doable and sustainable. Needless to say, the planning should be the product of a process that should involve many technical and legal experts, meaning that it should not be the product of one man’s thinking, no matter how intelligent or powerful he or she is.

Speaking about planning, I will never get tired of saying that according to the law, all plans of the national government agencies and the local government units (LGUs) should be in line with, and should be consistent with Agenda 21, the long term agenda for sustainable development here in the Philippines. In other words, we should elect local officials who not only understand Agenda 21, but who could plan and implement in line with it.

At the risk of stating the obvious, I will also not get tired of saying that all planning activities should start with good data gathering, and should end with the operation and maintenance of good databases. In a recent report aired by one of the networks, it was mentioned that the government was supposed to have implemented a Geographic Information System (GIS) a long time ago, but it did not materialize. What happened to that?

A GIS database is not everything, but it should really be at the core of all local planning activities, incorporating all demographic and topographic data that could reasonably be gathered. With GIS at the core, it would then be easy to include a Global Positioning System (GPS) on one hand and a Short Messaging System (SMS) on the other hand, thus making it open to all.

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THE POLITICS OF URBAN PLANNING

NO HOLDS BARRED (035) October 09, 2009
By Ike Señeres

THE POLITICS OF URBAN PLANNING

It’s good to talk about political issues if something good could come out of it, meaning to say that it should result in positive action and not just plain talk that does not amount to anything. In the past days, the airwaves and the newspapers were full of discussion about relocating informal settlers to safer places, but will all this talk ever result in real actions?

I am all for local autonomy, but in everything that concerns local governance; we should always proceed on the assumption that there is a functional oversight system at the national level, to make sure that the exercise of autonomy is within the prescribed national standards. Yes, autonomy is supposed to give freedom, but only within the realm of what is legally right and what is technologically correct.

The extension of local autonomy should also proceed from the assumption that the local authorities are technologically and functionally competent to plan and implement their own land use programs, inclusive of all safety and environmental concerns. This goes without saying that the national government should also be in a position to guide local authorities in this concern, and to provide technical services if and when necessary.

As far as I recall, there is a law that requires developers to turn over the jurisdiction and management of subdivisions from the developers to the local governments, as soon as it is established that the development is already functionally and technologically completed. This also goes without saying that the national agency, in this case the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) will be the one to finally validate the state of completion.

Moving back one step, I recall that even before a development should start, the developer is supposed to get an Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC) from the Department of Environment & Natural Resources (DENR), attesting that the subdivision complies with all safety and environmental requirements, presumably including as well all natural and demographic threats to the development as the case may be.

It was quite a revelation to hear that Architect Jun Palafox had actually issued a warning about forty years ago, that some of the sites slated for development at that time were environmentally unsafe for housing purposes, naturally hazardous in other words. Since the identity of these sites are already known, what is the government going to do about making sure that these same sites that were hit by the floods will not be inhabited again?

Without any doubt, corruption is a very dangerous evil that could cause the death of hundreds of people in its consequential effects. What is even more dangerous is the evil combination of corruption and incompetence, because this union has the potential of killing thousands of people at the very least. We have seen this happen, and we could see it happening again not unless we will do something to change it.

From out of the rubble of the destruction, we should now learn hard lessons that should change the way we do things, not just for now, but for good. Not just for us in this generation but for the generations to come, for the sake of our nation that could practically become a paradise if only we could deal with the natural hazards by using the right legal and technological solutions.

As big things start from small things, we should now start correcting our small mistakes that have worsened into the big problems that are now confronting us. Nothing is too small when it comes to putting into order the bigger picture which is the safety and wellbeing of the bigger population over and above the petty interests of the smaller political elite.

I think that it is not too late to say that we should start with small yet basic steps such as waste segregation and hazard mapping, very simple and yet very meaningful steps that could lead us to bigger and more encompassing solutions that are needed anyway as we also have to deal with climate change and global warming.

At this stage of our history, we should be talking about buying battle ships and combat jets but never mind that for now as long as we could buy rubber boats and rescue helicopters. Better still, let us also buy portable toilets and tent shelters if only to prove that we know how to take the basic steps.

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VISUAL CLEANLINESS

NO HOLDS BARRED (034) October 02, 2009
By Ike Señeres

VISUAL CLEANLINESS

Engineer Ben Eusebio is a Balikbayan from the United States who served with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for more than thirty years. He was previously a visiting scientist under the Transfer of Knowledge thru Expatriate Nationals (TOKTEN), a project of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) that I managed when I was still the head of technology transfer at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). Ben was the first scientist who made me aware about the fact that here in the Philippines, our environmental managers and advocates are pursuing the wrong orientation of “visual cleanliness”.

When I asked him to explain what he meant, Ben gave me the example of our wrong orientation towards river cleanup, wherein we are inclined to clean up only the surface of the rivers, without seeing to it that the entire river is actually clean from top to bottom, not just clean of debris, but also clean of chemicals and other contaminants. Thereafter, he explained to me that there are many other solid matter in the rivers that we do not see, but still have to be cleaned up, eventually making me realize that “visual cleanliness” is not the same as “actual cleanliness”.

Dr. Ernie Gonzales is the second scientist to educate me about “visual cleanliness”. Ernie is a Fellow of the London School of Economics and is presently the President of the National Economic Protection Association (NEPA). He cited as an example the Napindan facility in Laguna which was funded by the Japanese government for the purpose of enabling the Philippine government to measure the flows of water in the Pasig River for early warning purposes, using the science of telemetry. He said that the implementing agency for this is the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) but unfortunately it was not maintained. The problem is, it is located in an area that is not seen by the public, and is therefore outside the realm of “visual cleanliness”.

Based on its name, MMDA is supposed to be responsible for the economic and social development of Metro Manila, meaning that it is supposed to have a bigger scope than just traffic and garbage. Seemingly pursuing a myopic interpretation of its functions, the MMDA is giving us the impression that it is doing its job very well because it is “taking care” of the traffic and the garbage supposedly. With so many pronouncements, the MMDA told us that it has already solved the problem of flooding in the Metropolis, adding that it is now a “clean city”.

As we have recently experienced it after the recent rains however, the problem of flooding is far from being solved, and the flow of traffic still becomes a nightmare when the floods come. As it turned out, the floods became worst because there were many places in our water systems which were not cleaned up, and were therefore clogged, simply because these were far from our visual views.

It may be slightly far from the topic, but I would like to mention here that there is a trade off in allowing political appointees to prevail over the professional work of career public servants, particularly those in the career executive ranks. We are allowing political appointees to serve us on the presumption that they could do a better job than we could, or compared to our career executives. When these political appointees fail to do their jobs as we expect them, we somehow feel that we are in the losing end.

If political appointees are only capable of delivering shallow governance solutions based on what they could see visually, why don’t they simply just give way to the career public servants who could possibly do better than them, perhaps potentially giving us more depth in their governance actions? Under our laws, all public servants from the Undersecretary rank and below are supposed to be career people. Nowadays however, even section chiefs are now political appointees.

Truth to tell, beautification is only one of the shallow reasons for cleaning up our environment. The more profound and deeper reason is really environmental protection or public safety to put it another way. By limiting itself to the visual beauty of our environment, the MMDA and many other agencies are now responsible for the ugly scenes of death and destruction that we now see around us. How are we going to seek justice for this punishment that was brought upon us? Don’t we have the rights to punish those who are guilty by at least removing them from public office?

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