The threat from the sea

BEHIND THE SCENES
Alfred P. Dizon

BAUANG, La Union – Watching the sea from the Long Beach Resort here, I couldn’t help but notice that the water had almost reached the establishment.A decade ago, the beach was a long stretch and at midday, one had to bear the long walk over scorching sand to reach the water for a swim.

Even at the nearby Cabana, the singers, with their Latin jazz repertoir could barely be heard as the waves have come nearer and are crashing loudly on the seawall. It is the same in nearby resorts as far as the Sea Park, owned by a mining company, where Lucio Tan reportedly hies off once in a while.

Nowadays, in other parts of the Ilocos Region, the phenomenon is the same, environmentalists have observed. Even the waves have become stronger and resort owners, who didn’t have the foresight of building their establishments farther from the sea, are worried.

Suddenly, they realize, climate change are not just buzz words. Two decades ago, if one talked about the matter, one could raise eyebrows. Now, it is a worldwide concern, following deadly tsunamis and other natural disasters which claimed numerous lives and property.

For years, governments including those of this Banana Republic, have paid lip service in addressing it. Until now, environmentalists opine, there are still no concrete programs related to it. But somehow, officials like Senate minority leader Alan Peter Cayetano, want something done.

Cayetano has urged the government to address the absent or lack of preparation for climate change related calamities in areas where increases in sea levels pose immediate threats to communities.

He said tropical cyclones and flashfloods that killed and displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Mindanao and the Visayas last year and previous calamities like those caused by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng should serve as crucial lessons for the government to learn from.

Cayetano was alarmed by the recent study of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that identifies the Philippines as one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change. The country ranks 5th globally in terms of the number of people to be affected by sea level rise.

The ADB report titled “Addressing climate change and migration in Asia and the Pacific” acknowledged that sea level rise is already seriously threatening communities with coastal flooding with most of them found in Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar.

Cayetano said as an archipelagic country, a large number of population live in coastal areas and most of them are poor families living in shanties.

“Efforts must be made to identify areas that are at serious risks on account of rise in sea level so adequate planning and preparations can be made,” he said.

The ADB report recommended that governments must invest heavily on improving urban infrastructure resilient to harsh calamities and basic services to people in times of these disasters such as health, water and sanitation and education for displaced schoolchildren.

“We can no longer afford to simply take risks when flashfloods and typhoons hit any part of our country. Our poor people are constantly helpless due to lack of government programs and strategies for their timely safe evacuation them to safer places,” said Cayetano,

He said donations and relief operations are short-term programs and don’t address the main issues for mitigating the impact of climate change in the Philippines.