AFTER this flood
I’d like to see the dove,
And nothing but the dove,
Be rescued once more.
I’d drown in this sea!
If she didn’t fly out,
If she didn’t bring,
In the last hour, the leaf.
- Anonymous
This is the season for many Tagbilaranons to experience nightmares—roads becoming riverbanks. Worse, some roads and houses turn into a river for just twenty minutes of heavy downpour.
There is a constant pool on Nangka Drive. Much more when downpours come. This happens because the road doesn’t have a sewer.
The residents in the area called “Inyong Alagad” radio program of the DYRD several times just to bring out their complaint. They also wrote two letters to the former city mayor to resolve the problem. I haven’t seen a dove carry a leaf. No one comes to the rescue.
In one boarding house near Nangka Drive, boarders woke up with their beds soaking with flood water. As a result, eight (8) room renters and bed spacers leave the boarding house en masse. Suddenly, the owner of the boarding house can no longer operate their rental business. What if this means a lot?
In another house, a seller lost his stocks to the mud water.
Losing business is difficult to bear. Other entrepreneurs experience the same.
Only the city government can fix the mess. It should assess the cost of lost opportunities and clients. We are awaiting mayor Jane Yap’s flood control project. This should include the area near Nangka Drive.
I urge the Sangguniang Panlungsod to put a sewer at the side of Nangka Drive. It can do this by legislation. This means a lot for businesses, health, and mobility of office workers and students. This means a lot for the citizen’s well-being.
For a city to thrive, we need urban planning. We must incorporate it into our system because we do not want to exist and drown by accident. We want to prosper.
May the city mayor and the Sangguniang Panlungsod act immediately and resolve the long-time rant of affected residents.
With frequent floods, I want to see the dove with the leaf.
