Local rehabilitation and development

PUNCHLINE

Ike Seneres

Rehabilitation and redevelopment are two twin objectives that should never be separated from each other. The first requirement of course is to recognize that these are distinct from each other, even if it would seem that they are one and the same.

This requirement is very important, because the lack of recognition could potentially cause the failure of applicable implementation programs. This is what is happening in the anti-poverty program, because until now, many of our government officials do not seem to recognize the difference between poverty alleviation and poverty reduction.

This is also what is happening in the barangay development program, because many of our government officials do not recognize the difference between a barangay “Chairman” and a barangay “Captain”. Perhaps they do not know that a barangay Chairman is a democratic leader of an elected council who does not have dictatorial power.

A barangay Captain as it implies is a mental residue from the Spanish times, wherein the said “Kapitan” is actually an officer of the “Guardia Civil”, no wonder the position had dictatorial and military powers at that time.

Perhaps it is also the same case in the solid waste management program, because it seems that many of our government officials also do not recognize the difference between a dumpsite and a landfill. For those who would also want to know, dumpsites are already banned and only landfills are allowed now. But not just any landfill is allowed, because these have to comply with strict engineering and safety standards in order to ensure that no harmful substances would leak into the soil and the aquifer.

Long before the strong earthquakes and typhoons hit the Visayan regions, our laws had already required the building of easements from the waterways, and the building of materials recovery facilities (MRFs). It seems however that many of our Local Government Units (LGUs) do not recognize these laws. It is good to plan for, and dream about what is good for the future, but we need to have a reality check, to be reminded that if we could not follow our present laws, how could we even achieve our future plans?

Let us also not forget that for many decades now, we have been talking about building “farm to market” roads, aside from building “post harvest facilities”. These are of course good plans, but let us have the reality check that up to now, these are just dreams for the most part. For the record, I am not dousing cold water on our wishes to rebuild and rehabilitate our damaged regions. On the other hand, I am suggesting that we should temper our wishes, meaning that we should only start what we could finish, and let us not even think of anything that we could not realize.

Just like building a house, a good rehabilitation and redevelopment project would need a good plan. In the case of rebuilding and redeveloping entire communities however, this type of project would need more than just good architectural and engineering plans.

In line with this, I would like to propose a “Triple E” strategy, an approach that would combine Energy, Ecology and Efficiency. Just to put this strategy in the right perspective, I will tell you right away that I have seen some of the “state of the art” real estate development projects in the Philippines, and to my disappointment, most of them do not have renewable energy, do not have solid waste management (no MRFs) and do not have efficient systems (no automation).

Of course it is easy to say that we want to build “green” communities, but what is the use of being a “green” community if it is not also “smart” (efficient)? Besides, how could a community be “smart” if it is not even “green”? On top of it all, how could a community be “smart” and “green” if it does not have renewable energy? First things first, it is important for our local government officials to recognize that “green architecture” is already inseparable from renewable energy. What this means is that architecture could not be “green” if its energy supply is not renewable and sustainable.

Looking at this another way, modern agriculture is now capable of not only producing food, but also raw materials for energy generation. As I understand it, “efficiency” should mean not just the automation of services and processes, but also the availability of essential necessities such as food and water. Speaking of water, our local government officials should also recognize that with cheap energy, they could now tap water sources and process these to become drinkable. And conversely, if they have flowing water nearby, they could also produce energy using hydro technologies. The cycle goes on, because if they have water, they could also produce food.

Redevelopment means the restoration of damaged structures from the previously developed infrastructure. It could also mean the building of new infrastructure that was not part of what was there before.

Either way, the starting point should always be a good Integrated Area Development (IAD) plan that should always start with a Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP). All of these could be implemented using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Computer Aided Design (CAD), Computer Aided Modelling (CAM) and Operations Research (OR).

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