My lonely fight

Ben Contreras .

WE have been seeing rain every now and then after a brief dry season that was not exactly a dry spell.

The other night, it was quite heavy, or so I thought based on the loud tapping of the rain on our roof. Rain is always a welcome, at least to me. When my little farm needs water like air, every bit of rain water that flows into the 2,000 liter tank and the more than 10 plastic drums count.

Alas, the rain the other night, albeit for only less than an hour, inundated parts of the Kauswagan highway again! And there was a warning for Cagayan de Oro City that rain was heavy in Bukidnon. It was like saying, “Hey guys, prepare for possible flood in the city!”

This reminds me again of Ruben Abanil who recalled that when he was taking up agriculture at Ateneo de Cagayan, a priest told them that the center of the city should have been up on higher grounds (must be the Pueblo area today), and that what is now the city proper should have been for agriculture because it’s below sea level.

Sometimes, people reject logic and don’t consider that water does not climb to higher grounds but flows down and seeks the lowest level. We ignored the history of floodings in the city which could help us in planning properly. We failed to protect our environment to prevent soil erosion, landslides and floods. We lost our lands that help absorb rain water to infrastructure development and land conversions. We continue to level our mountains and use the soil as filling materials. And we destroy our rivers to extract sand and gravel.

And so today, flooding will always be a part of our daily lives whenever it rains. The worst could be forthcoming.

Talking of Kauswagan highway — how much infrastructure work have we seen there lately just to prevent flooding? From raising the road level to cleaning up the huge drains, and today, we see the government putting in place huge box culverts. Work is slow and the projects have been disrupting the traffic flow. But we are still seeing it flooded.

I wonder if that subterranean drainage system under construction in the Agora area in Lapasan would be of help. We will know the answer the next time there is a heavy downpour when it’s high tide.

In the meantime, people will continue to lament over the floodings and on why our local government is not doing enough or the right thing. Bahala na mo diha sa ubos kay nia mi sa taas o ibabaw?

***

More and more are complaining about the lack of water and poor services of the Cagayan de Oro Water District. I want to laugh but I can’t. I have gone through a lonely fight, drawing no support for the planned class suit against COWD and its board. Its chairman taunted the move for lack of money.

I invited people to hang tarps on their cars with these messages: “COWD BOD, Oca, pila man?,” and “COWD BOD, Oca, water is our business.” Only a few responded. It seems like only a few believe that there is something wrong about the agreement signed by the COWD and the Pangilinan group. Perhaps, nobody really cares. And while the people suffer, some people were/are raking in dirty money.

No water? Dig your own well.

***

Do you have garbage at home that remains uncollected? If not, you are not alone. Chances are, we have huge volumes of garbage, much more than what our garbage collectors are paid to collect. Worse, if they refuse to collect because they are not paid yet for their past collections.

Wasn’t our city awarded one of the most livable cities in the country? The judges must be talking of another Cagayan. Hohum…