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CEBU CITY, Philippines – While city officials figure out what caused Sitio (district) Paradise Island in Barangay (village) Looc, Mandaue City to be submerged in knee-deep water, residents are wondering what is taking the city so long to build a medium-rise socialized housing condominium building promised years ago.
Mila Ganuhay, 47, a resident of Sitio Paradise Island, said that with the sea creeping into the barangay more and more, the need for the building was becoming more evident.
“They should just get it started. That’s the national government’s money, after all,” Ganuhay said.
She called on the city government to update the beneficiaries on the status of the project.
City Administrator Briccio Joseph Boholst said City Hall would talk to Sitio Paradise Island residents soon not just about the medium-rise housing project, but also about an additional proposed housing project.
He said the medium-rise housing project would only be able to accommodate 408 people. There are over 600 families living in Paradise Island.
“We intend to talk to them, but better to do it when we’ve already completed the second (housing project) plan,” he said.
He said the city government is still working on the details of the second housing project.
The plan for a medium-rise building was started during the administration of former mayor Thadeo Ouano. The P100-million budget for the project will be provided by the national government.
Boholst, who is acting mayor in the absence of Mayor Jonas Cortes, said the intrusion of seawater into parts of Barangay Looc, including Sitio Paradise Island, may have been caused by the deterioration of a private road along the coast.
He said residents observed that the road, which used to block seawater from going inland, has “sagged” recently. During high tide, seawater would wash over the road and enter the sitio.
While residents said it was not unusual for seawater to enter the sitio, the level of the intruding seawater last week was unusually high. Water had already entered the Cesar Cabahug Elementary School, which was built high enough to avoid water intrusion levels that the sitio had been used to.
The unusually high water levels in the sitio may be evidence of global warming, an environment official said.
Rising water levels is just one of the effects of rising temperatures worldwide, said Roger de Dios, regional technical director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Central Visayas (DENR-7).
USEPA web site said changes in the climate such as global warming may be attributed to natural factors, such as the sun’s intensity and natural processes in the climate system. In recent decades, human activities, such as burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, have also contributed to global warming.
The events in Sitio Paradise Island were not without precedent.
“There were shanties in Talisay City that were destroyed when the waters rose. In Panglao, Bohol Province, a house of one of our co-workers was destroyed,” he said.
“Houses along shorelines are at risk. They are susceptible to storm surges. That is why we have identified areas along shorelines, near river systems, as hazard-pone areas,” he said.
The rise in water levels, coupled with the onset of the rainy season this month, is expected to worsen the situation in Paradise Island, De Dios said.
“Global warming is not just a concern of DENR; it is a worldwide concern,” De Dios said. “That is why our projects are geared towards mitigating measures to address climate change.
“Unless a significant effort is made to address climate change, the problem will worsen,” he said.
