DAVAO CITY, Philippines -Addie Alfeche has grown accustomed to the ebb and tide of Davao River. At 73, living in the community in Bankerohan along the river banks all his life, he has witnessed the wrath of the rivers during heavy rains, when calm waters transform into strong waves that would flood their homes.
With no time and warning, such experience has become familiar to residents in the low lying areas in Bankerohan. They can only come to terms that their lives are intertwined with the river’s flow.
Davao River is said to be the third largest river catchment in Mindanao, and also the largest of Davao City’s watersheds, where some communities in Bankerohan lie near the river bank.
“The river rising is not new to us here. Whenever there are typhoons, the water always rises and reaches our homes,” Addie said, recalling there were times the flood would even submerge a person of average height.
When these floods happen, residents rush to put their belongings on elevated areas. Robin Banwelos, a 54-year old resident who has lived near the river dike for over 30 years, recalls a time when the swelling river nearly engulfed his home, which is built from lightweight materials.
With the uncertainty when the river will swell, he ensures he has space in his home to evacuate his belongings whenever necessary.
Whenever the water rises in the dike, barangay officials will sound the siren to alert the barangay and patrol the community, telling the residents to leave their homes to evacuate to higher grounds, and stay until the water recedes.
“The real difficulty is when the water doesn’t recede, that’s the hard part. Sometimes we wait for more than eight hours before we can return home,” said Tatay Addie.
He said there are times that he and his 54-year old wife Virginia opt to stay home despite the dire circumstances. “Most of us do not leave, because we need to keep an eye on our belongings, we prevent them from being swept by the river or taken by people,” Virginia explained.
Another cause of flooding
While the community seems normalized with the river swelling during heavy rainfall, another cause of floods is worrying the residents.
“Floods from the river are rare. They usually only occur with mountain runoff or during typhoons. More often, rain causes flooding. Even light rain can leave our streets submerged,” said Berna Perez, a 48-year old sari-sari store owner.
While her home is situated far from the river, heavy rainfall would flood their alleys up to a meter deep.
Berna and her neighbors are now accustomed to scoop their belongings to elevated places when their place gets flooded. Berna even jokingly showed her rain boots kept in her store in case she had to walk through submerged paths.
“During floods, all of this turns into a river,” Berma bemused.
Clogged sewage and poor drainage systems are blamed for this kind of flood. According to Addie, what is lacking is a culvert that would drain out the rain water from the paths into the river.
“There are culverts along the river dike. However, in this area near the canal, there is none. It would be hard to install one because that would mean an entire part of the dike needs to be reconstructed,” said Addie.
Rowena Hotoy, a barangay kagawad (councilor), blames the residents’ lack of discipline to dispose their garbage properly. Despite the barangay’s clean-up drives, trash would still end up on the sides of the paths, which would then clog the sewage when heavy rains wash them off.
Berna defended her fellow residents that they follow the barangay guidelines in throwing their garbage into designated areas, but admitted there were times when they would pay children who collect their garbage who fail to dispose it properly.
“Some of us would pay around 10 pesos to kids to throw their trash, but they would sometimes just place it in the corners where trash eventually accumulates,” Berna said.
Limitations for development
Berna expressed her dismay as she would hear promises from officials of fixing their barangay’s drainage, but no action was ever taken.
Hotoy, however, explained that fixing the drainage is not an easy task, due to the complicated issue of land ownership in Bankerohan.
“Our infrastructure is difficult to develop because we still need permission. Since they (the residents) are mostly informal settlers, we don’t have a (land) title (to the land). So, we find it hard to get project donation requirements,” explained Hotoy.
With no housing or flood prevention programs offered from the government to address the risks of living near the river, these residents in Bankerohan are left to remain and endure the already familiar uncertainties of the water.
Robin affirms, saying, “Even if it’s hard, we have to stay because we have no other choice but this.” (davaotoday.com)
