The seas are rising

Privilege Speech of Councilor Peter T. Laviña

September 25, 2007

Madam President, colleagues …

World leaders are convening this week in New York for the UN General Assembly and various fora to discuss global warming.

But, despite this conclave and the possible solutions they may put forward like further reduction of greenhouse gases, scientists, academicians, experts and environmentalists are one in saying that climate change is now irreversible.

For instance, global warming characterized by melting glaciers, disappearing ice sheets and warmer ocean waters will cause the rising of the seas by at least 1 meter.

Many coastal areas in New York’s Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, where world leaders are now meeting, would be under water in the next century.

The question is not one if this would actually occur, but when. The earliest prediction is less than 50 years.

Most of us who grew up in Davao City would know very well that our city is a flood drain area with much of the places near the Davao River and the Davao Gulf were once marshlands.

When I was growing up as a little boy in the early 1960s, I remember crossing what is now Quezon Blvd. where we used to swim across the river; our school at Ponciano St. was perennially under water; houses at the back of Gima Printing Press just a block from here were on stilts, and marshes exists from Tomas Claudio to Obrero and Agdao.

I am sure our Majority Leader, Councilor Boni Militar, would know this because the old Provincial Jail were the Central Bank is now located in his neighborhood was likewise always flooded.

Many areas in our city are truly low and vulnerable to the rising tides of the Davao Gulf. That is the reason why it is difficult to control flooding in our city. As many as 30 barangays are either in our coastal or flood drain zones.

As an archipelagic nation, we are vulnerable to the rising of the seas.

We have long been hearing reports about Manila sinking. One report said Manila is sinking by as much as 1 centimeter per year. Conventional wisdom said that this is because of too much pumping of water out of the capital’s aquifers.

Yet, come to think of it – not many argued the other way around. Manila may not be sinking at all, but rather, the Manila Bay is rising.

Madam President, colleagues, I raise this issue because we are now undertaking the review of our Comprehensive Development Plan and Zoning Ordinance.

In the 14^th City Council, I proposed a Resolution to regulate the development of our coastal areas. Now, Councilor Danilo Dayanghirang is proposing the ban on improvements on it.

It may well serve our city and people well if we can:

Ø      Identify areas that would be affected in such rising of the seas by 1 meter;

Ø      Inform our citizens;

Ø      Establish policies to protect these areas;

Ø      Regulate or avoid improvements on the same.

• Plan and lay down the infrastructure for the eventual relocation of our coastal population into areas of higher altitude within the next 50 years.

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