Pasig City lies between the Marikina River and the Pasig River. Together with Marikina and Cainta, Pasig City is a catch basin for the rains that fall on the Sierra Madre mountain range that borders Bulacan, Rizal and Quezon. Even by historical accounts, Pasig has had annual floods when the Marikina River that flows into the Pasig River swells from the rains from the so called mountain range.
The early inhabitants of Pasig had three industries. They are dependent on natural irrigation from the annual floods for their ricefields, the riverbanks where the majority of the early settlement converged were for duck raising and boat building since before, there was no South Superhighway or SLEX that connected Manila to Laguna. There was only the Pasig River to serve as the transportation artery towards Laguna de Bae and then access to Morong and Laguna Province.
Pasig City is no stranger to floods. But since population has increased many fold, the natural waterways have been constricted or worse, have been taken over by settlements. The natural basin for rainwater such as the ricefields have been converted into settlements and subdivisions. Thus, flooding has worsened and have become longer in duration.
The people of Pasig City have managed to adjust with the annual floods but population pressure has exacerbated the problems related to flooding and with this the citizens of Pasig created informal organizations. In the past, the barangay chairman or even before that the Capitan del Barrio would make the rounds of the community when a storm was expected to arrive. The Barrio Captainn would see to it that roofs were secure and tied down and he would distribute rice to members of the community. Floods would occur and people did not evacuate but stayed in their houses and on their roofs and wait for the flood to abate. Then reconstruction would occur.
These organizations were first based on volunteer radio-communications groups and communities. But a more formal and structured was needed. The time for just waiting out the floods is no longer feasible due to the higher flood level and the longer duration.
The wake up call came when Tropical Storm Ketsana or Ondoy hit Pasig City in 2009 when thousands of homes were submerged. It affected the greater portion of the population of Pasig City and its duration was unprecedented in recent history.
Because of this, Pasig City built its Command Center in 2010. Together with RA 10121, Pasig City established it City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council and Office., It has installed an initial 220 CCTV cameras and Flood Early Warning Systems (FEWS). All of which are integrated into a computerized system that has analytics and capabilities in forecasting potential floods based on collected data from various sources and systems.
Pasig City has only 2 pumping stations during Ondoy in 2009. Today, it has 23 pumping stations. Pasig City has trucks and boats that can be used during floods and other disasters. The city can now respond to calls for help within minutes.
Pasig City has a backup communication system that can be utilized even if all cellsites of the telecommunications companies have been rendered inoperable such as what happened during Ondoy.
But what sets Pasig City apart is its investment in the “soft” infrastructure for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM). This is the trainings component. This is where the real the real investment in DRRM is.
Pasig allots some 5% of its annual budget to reducing the risk and mitigating the impact of disasters.
Pasig City spent Php244 million for disaster preparedness and mitigation. What matters is not just a big budget but a wholistic approach in DRRM as Pasig DRRM Chief Ritchie Van Angeles.
Pasig City CDRRMO is a Gawad Kalasag Hall of Fame awardee, 2012 Best GEMS and 2015 Best City DRRMO.
Pasig City not only tries to mitigate the disaster but also included sound planning and training. Pasig City has also conducted structural audits of all public buildings, roads and bridges so as to ensure that the city will be resilient to disasters notwithstanding its being a home to two rivers.
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