In February of 1953, a big storm hit the Netherlands which breached its famous but old system of dikes and levees, killing 1,800 people in the worst flooding in modern Dutch history. The Dutch learned their lesson, so they embarked on an $8 billion, 30-year program to strengthen its flood control system. The centerpieces of this engineering marvel are a 2.4-km system of gates along the North Sea and a massive storm surge barrier at the mouth of the Rhine River.

Even while still an engineering student in the early 1970s, I remember hearing proposals for flood control from the Dutch. Filipinos have to accept that floods are a natural occurrence in Metro Manila because it is mostly at or below sea level and the Pasig River that dissects the city always overflows. And the primary solution to the problem is an adequate flood control system; controlling trash and reforestation are only secondary.

Sixty percent of the Netherlands is below sea level, but this didn’t daunt this small resourceful people from thinking of ways to control annual flooding. They built dikes, dams, rain storage ponds, and windmill-powered pumps to move water from low areas to higher level areas. In fact, words like dike, dam, sluice – commonly-used today for flood-control – originated from Dutch words.

Decades ago, the Philippine government should have built infrastructure for 100-year flooding (i. e., the kind of flooding that happens once in 100 years): notably high dikes along the Pasig River and high sea walls along Manila Bay. In addition, they should buy extensive tracts of land in the higher portions of the metro area and the surrounding hills and make them storage ponds. These ponds would catch a huge amount of rainfall such as the 410 mm of “Ondoy” to prevent extensive flooding.

These projects might not completely control flooding, but it would surely prevent disastrous flooding such as the most recent one. If the Dutch could control flooding for 10,000 square miles of their country, why can’t the Philippines control flooding for a tiny 240 square miles of Metro Manila? London has its Thames River floodgates, Venice is building the same in the Adriatic, and Japan is building superlevees. Even such a poor country as Bangladesh has erected concrete shelters on stilts as emergency havens for flood victims. Did you read that, “honorable” president, cabinet members, senators and congressmen?

Why not stop squandering $20,000 for a dinner in New York and $1.3 million for a house in San Francisco? Why not use $40 million from ZTE kickbacks, $15 million from the fertilizer fund scam, and $6 million from the Jose Pidal money laundering scheme – to name a few– for flood control?

(Information for this article came from The New York Times article, “In Europe, High-Tech Flood Control, With Nature’s Help.”)

A good son or daughter will never do something that will taint the sterling reputation and good deeds of his or her parents.

Considering for several decades now, we… Filipinos are in dire need of sincere and ethical leaders. Clearly, Noynoy becomes a sure and “run-away” winner for Philippine President in this coming 2010 national election.

The call on all concerned Filipinos is to protect Noynoy [when elected President] from the onslaught of unscrupulous politicians, his party-mates, would-be appointees, and “scheming” businessmen.

But I will vote for Noynoy Aquino instead of Villar. Why?.. Simple…. With so many millions of pesos being spent by Manny Villar for infomercials before, and so many trips abroad he did to woo OFW votes under the guise of helping OFW’s in distress, plus doleouts of millions for House & Lot in the guise of Gifts to selected OFW victims of abuse, the question remains - where does he intend to recoup all those millions once elected to the Office of the President? … It’s pure money invested to earn more money …. It’s mind boggling really!