ILOILO City – This southern city is expected to bear the brunt of floods that may be brought by heavy rains or typhoons, according to Mayor Jerry Treñas.
He thus welcomed the inputs of professors from the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) in drawing up measures to mitigate floods and prepare communities when they happen.
UPV professors recently presented to Treñas a meta-analysis of extreme flooding studies in the Philippines conducted to extract lessons that could inform flood preparedness of the city.
UPV Chancellor Clement Camposano led the representation.
“These past few days, we heard and saw heartbreaking news of people struggling to survive heavy flooding due to typhoon ‘Ulysses’. Sadly, this is not the last of it according to professionals,” Treñas said.
Following the discussion of major findings, several items were found to be significant to Iloilo City and were thus given emphasis:
* Iloilo City is an alluvial fan that captures waters from mountains of the province
* the entire city has low coastal elevation
* Iloilo City is at risk to floods and landslides
* because of its geological features and its relationship to Tigum Aganan, Jaro, Iloilo, and Jalaur River basins, the mechanism of run-offs (e.g., infiltration excess and saturation excess) need to be better understood by Iloilo City
* zoning plans over areas with high potential for groundwater recharge need to be reviewed
* multiple choke points in waterways violate laws (e.g., on easements)
* bodies of water and waterways have already vanished and have been built over
With this, the group said several recommendations were discussed that triggered specific actions from the Office of the Mayor.
These include immediate review of the zoning plans in relation to the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) and the ground-truthing of choke points in the city waterways, among others.
During the meeting, analysis and presentation were made by Jessica Dator-Bercilla, faculty member of UPV’s College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences-Institute of Fisheries Policy and Development Studies.
To note, the World Meteorological Organization and Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, the Manila Observatory, UP Marine Science Institute, UP National Institute of Geological Sciences (in partnership with Christian Aid and its partners), UP National Institute of Physics, US AID Be Secure, and Coastal Cities at Risk PH conducted the studies that informed the analysis on floods associated with extreme weather events.
UPV and the city Government were involved in the IDRC-supported Coastal Cities at Risk PH studies./PN
