By Gab Mejia via FB
When we talk about water and floods, there is a particular indigenous community here in the Philippines that we can learn so much from.
The Manobo Tribe of the Agusan Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary Protected Area Management Office in Mindanao, literally lives and thrives in the middle of a lake and a flood basin with an ingenious design that adapts to the rise and fall of water. Most towns and cities in the Philippines, including Marikina, Bulacan, and Manila, are all found in flood basins and intertidal/coastal wetlands, respectively. It’s unfortunate that the Manobo Tribe does have an unjust share of problems because of the climate crisis, where prolonged droughts and drainage of water for palm oil plantations are heavily affecting the flow of water, that have caused subsequent algal blooms resulting to harder fish catch and inconvenient passage to tend to their needs. But what’s so amazing about this community, is how they efficiently manage to both respect, learn, and coexist from the changing flooded environment they are in, that even after the onslaught of Super Typhoon Pablo in 2012, that caused significant rainfall enough to make the water rise by 10-15 meters, their floating houses still holds on today. They tie the appended wooden rafts underneath their houses to the ‘bangkal’ trees that naturally grow in the lake that keeps their houses from being washed away by the strong currents and for keeping their whole houses intact and dry. They get their electricity from solar panels installed on their rooftops since major powerlines are hard to reach in the middle of a lake. The surrounding local communities near the Agusan River such as Talacogon, who prefer more contemporary structural designs, built their houses and schools on standing stilts high enough so that no amount of predictable flood will cause any significant damage to their community equipped with wooden canoes locally known as “barotos†and other boats. Plus whats amazing to note about the Agusan Marshlands, that despite it being the largest inland wetland in the Philippines and a biodiversity hotspot, is how it carries all the water coming down from the mountain ranges of Caraga and some parts in Compostella region, so that no devastating floods will occur when it drains downstream to coastal communities like Butuan City.
The recent flooding disaster in Cagayan, was brought by the great outflow of water coming from Magat Dam exacerbated by the lack of government-community based response, and negligence to understand the hydraulics and dynamics of floodplains and wetlands amid the changing climate. We allow the construction of houses and buildings on wetlands. We destroy the natural barriers of Luzon such as the Sierra Madre and Candaba Wetlands of Pampanga without simultaneously managing to create engineering mitigation solutions such as water catchment systems and tanks enough to carry all the outflow from our dams. So this is what we get. And NOW, all that water has to go somewhere! And it will continue to flow down flooding all the other provinces where the natural-water catchment systems like Candaba Swamp have already been degraded and destroyed, leaving more and more cities submerged in its path.
The point is— everything is interconnected. We divide rivers, wetlands, and mountains with varying degrees of governance. Some exploit them, some protect them— but ultimately it is one Cagayan River, one Sierra Madre, and one Agusan Marshlands that all play an important role to the life, death, and development of the Filipino People may it be indigenous or metropolitan. We are a nation shaped by mountains and oceans with cities built on wetlands, and if we don’t learn how to use this TO our advantage and not just FOR our advantage— we will ultimately be subdued in water and flames taking away billions worth of damage, and many more lives that can never remain the same again.
You can also read more on Agusan Marsh:
https://explorer-mag.nationalgeographic.org/pioneer_may_2020/coverhttps://www.instagram.com/gabmejia/
*Work from HOME and launch your own Wordpress blog, business or personal website, or online store at
www.dreamhost.com Yes, FREE Wordpress migration from your existing web host.
START your OWN blog site, business or personal website, or e-commerce store at
www.bluehost.com - FREE website transfer..
Latest
RSS FeedsLinkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=117053.0
