Metro Manila Flood is Not The Philippine Version of Katrina

I've read some blogs where they are comparing Typhoon Ondoy to Hurrican Katrina because the lack of disaster relief and preparedness.

Basically, the disaster relief fund and facilities is inadequate. There didn't seem to be enough amphibious vehicles to go around, the government didn't have an efficiently workin call center and PAGASA's own website was inaccessible due to lack of bandwidth.

This is what happens when people steal money meant for the people. The people suffers, but hey, the Filipinos are known for their "bahala na" and "God will take care of us" attitude.

Also heard that some people say it could have been worst.

Actually, it didn't have to be like this at all. If people stopped throwing trash in the canals and waterways, there would be sufficient drainage of the flood waters.

If DPWH built bigger and more effective drainage system, the loss would have been minimized. But unfortunately, building a good system one time doesn't make anyone any money. So they will build one drain system for one block for say 6ft in diameter. After it's been laid down and road is paved over. Six months later, they will remove the pipe and put in a 10 ft diameter pipe in its place.

But really, the biggest problem causing the flood is trash. Trash thrown everywhere, in the streets, canals, anywhere they feel.

A friend of mine was looking outside his window and saw a couple of street kids playing in the flood. He saw them throw a shoe into the drain. So how do you expect the flood waters to drain? Sometimes I wonder whether these kids are just stupid or ignorant.

He even spoke to his city councilor a while ago. The councilor said that the problem of the flooding was nothing else but due to trash. Trash is the root cause of the flood.

How many disasters does it take for people to learn?