Reclamation and flooding
At a time when our country is experiencing nonstop flooding, there’s one humongous question that comes to mind. One that especially concerns Metro Manila and the surrounding provinces. What has happened to the investigation into the 22 reclamation projects around Manila Bay that were suspended by President Marcos in August 2023? To recall, all the reclamation projects were suspended to allow the government to do a study on their cumulative impact on flooding and environmental risks. Have they been quietly given the green light to resume? And if so, what contribution are they now bringing to the kind of disastrous flooding that the metropolis has been suffering from?
By their insane total number, the sheer force of their collective impact, and the acute population density of the surrounding communities, the combined 22 reclamation projects must be conclusively considered to have severe negative effects on the environment and the surrounding communities. The 22 reclamation projects with a combined area of 22,000 hectares would cover 11 percent of the whole of Manila Bay. There’s just no way that the total volume of backfill materials consisting of soil, sand, gravel, rocks, cement, and steel pilings—all causing a displacement of huge volumes of water—will not seriously impact the environment and the people living around the bay. There’s just no way that the resulting change in the hydrology of interconnected water systems of rivers, sea, estuaries, marshlands, and floodplains will not cause flooding in the communities along the bay.
The focus of the study that the government must do, or should have done, is to determine what remedies must be mandatorily prescribed—to be accomplished at the collective expense of all the reclamation proponents—to restore the status quo ante condition of Manila Bay. What solutions, in the magnitude and equal effectiveness of those adopted by countries like the Netherlands, must be put in place to prevent the massive flooding that the monstrosity of 22 reclaimed areas will surely bring or are already bringing?
These mandatory prescriptions must be published online for civil society, independent scientists, and the public to examine and critique. An online search of such remedial prescriptions, or the results of the review that the government has promised to conduct, yields nothing. It is of the highest level of national interest that the studies on the impact of the reclamation projects must be published, because we’re looking at an irreversible alteration of the Manila Bay environment and a permanent source of flooding for Metro Manila communities and the surrounding provinces.
In fact, an urgent study must be made on the level of contribution of the already dumped backfill of the unfinished reclamation sites to the kind of flooding now being experienced by Metro Manila. We should not wait for the reclamation projects to be green-lighted to completion, only to find out belatedly that they will collectively cause the kind of flooding that Bulacan and Pampanga are now experiencing. Metro Manila residents are now experiencing severe flooding, but it disappears in hours or in a day at most. But if the 22 reclamation projects are completed, Metropolis residents may experience the stagnant flooding that stays for weeks (even months?) in some of the communities of Bulacan and Pampanga. The government must supplement the previous theoretical studies with a current study. And if the updated study says that the 22 reclamation projects will permanently result in yearly flooding, they must be discontinued and abandoned without remorse.
The government must make a case study of the flooding in Bulacan and Pampanga, which residents are blaming on the New Manila International Airport (NMIA) being built on the coast of Bulacan. The scientific studies must be published for the public to analyze and critique. The damage caused by incessant flooding being experienced by so many affected residents is too serious to ignore. All the studies done prior to the start of the project were based on theoretical models. An updated study should be conducted to determine the contribution of the NMIA construction to the current flooding being experienced in multiple towns. The government has now in its hands an actual environmental disaster, which is threatening to become a permanent feature of the affected provinces. The government must do a study on whether the life-altering level of flooding happening now in Bulacan and Pampanga is indeed due to the NMIA project.
If the government ignores the cautionary tale of what’s happening now in Bulacan and Pampanga, Metro Manila and the surrounding provinces may be next to suffer the fate of stagnant flooding if the 22 reclamation projects are allowed to be completed.
It’s bad enough that climate change has been bringing unprecedented disaster. It is worse if our government allows big business to engage in infrastructure projects that exponentially multiply the destructive impact of climate change.
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