Not an Act of God

Urbanizing coastal cities nestled in a fragile watershed constantly face the challenge of flooding. The experience of Cagayan de Oro City in the Philippines in the wake of Tropical Storm Sendong in 2011 showed that adverse flooding impacts are magnified when dense settlements are formed in flood hazard areas. Sendong affected 40,000 families in 41 villages, claimed 750 lives, and changed the riverscape. Learning from the disaster, Cagayan de Oro vowed to build a resilient city by mainstreaming disaster risk reduction in land use planning, regulating the use of upstream and downstream areas of rivers, and rehabilitating man-made and natural drainage systems. Moreover, it rationalized settlements distribution and density through zoning and started relocating communities away from waterways and floodplains.