At the door of her house, in a modest neighborhood of Pasay, one of the cities that make up the greater Manila region, Jane Lappay had a generous smile a few days ago, despite the anticipation of the weeks to come.
“The water will come into the house, for sure,” the woman in her 50s said while glancing in the direction of the Maricban stream, which runs just below her windows. “It’s always like that during the big rains and the typhoon season [qui débute en juin aux Philippines]. We live with that. We settle upstairs, while it passes. And when it stops, we clean the house and we start living normally again. »
Like thousands of Filipinos in the Manila area, Mme Lappay has always lived in a flood zone, which climate change has weakened for ten years. With a perspective that promises nothing better.
By 2050, nearly 40% of the inhabitants of the capital risk finding themselves submerged, temporarily or permanently, if nothing is done to prevent a rise in water levels, which here follows a rhythm three or four times faster than the rest of the world, according to measurements and projections by the Philippine government’s Climate Change Commission. The daily lives of five to eight million people could be affected as quickly as 20 years from now. And that of 12 million people by the end of the century.
“The situation is getting worse year after year”, drops Romeo Gargoles Espano, councilor of the local administration – the barangay, as it is called here — from district 179 of Pasay. “Before, the water could go up to the waist in some streets. Now she reaches the shoulders. »
“There has been money released in the past to facilitate the flow of water from the stream during heavy rains. But he didn’t make it to the works, he adds smiling. Corruption, perhaps. »
In a country where the perception of corruption is among the highest in the world — at 116e ranking out of 180 countries and territories, according to the latest ranking established by Transparency International (TI) — the fight against climate change and adaptation to it must deal with more than rising sea levels.
“In the Philippines, you only need to be stopped once by the police on the road to be placed at the forefront of corruption,” smiles Angelo Kairos Dela Cruz, director of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, which works to adapt the urban fabric to the new climatic reality. “We are aware of that. But for the moment, it is above all the red tape and the slowness of the administration that poses a problem. Environmental action requires a speed of intervention that contradicts the capacity of the administration to respond to it. It is an old system which is not adapted to change and which cannot, for example, accompany the construction of a dyke in six months, even if in several places it is what we need immediately to save lives and preserve viable living environments for hundreds of families. »
Call for a new paradigm
“Without a new political framework in the Philippines, the chances of success in our adaptation will always be compromised”, assures in an interview Mitzi Jonelle Tan, 25, member of the group Young defenders of climate action in the Philippines, met in the air-conditioned environment. of a mall in Manila when outside the mercury had already exceeded 42 degrees.
“People who hold power, political and economic, have never experienced hunger or vulnerability to climate change. Worse, through their economic activities, they are often also the cause of the problem, and this complicates matters. »
“The government has realized the problem we are facing,” says Rodel Lasco, environmental researcher and director of the Oscar M. Lopez Center for Climate Change Adaptation. “He has developed flood control projects, an early warning system to warn citizens of rising waters, to enable them to evacuate their homes more quickly. But it’s not enough. More needs to be done, because it’s not going to get better in the future. »
More ? Yes, but also with everyone, believes Angelo Kairos Dela Cruz, who regrets that this complex march towards adaptation is also part of the context of social disparities that are still very glaring in the Philippines.
At the end of 2022, 51% of Filipinos considered themselves poor and 31% said they were on the verge of this poverty, according to the most recent data from Social Weather Stations, an independent body that has been surveying the country’s social climate since 1985. This proportion of 82% has been almost constant since the end of the dictatorial regime of Marcos senior, despite the repeated promises of politicians, election after election, including by Marcos junior during the presidential election of 2022, to overcome it. .
THE ” hindi mahirap —those who are not poor—constituted 18% of the population.
“Currently, in Manila Bay, there are major embankment works to contain the rising waters,” said Angelo Kairos Dela Cruz. These works have negative effects on the poorer neighboring districts, by displacing masses of water which end up worsening the floods in these very dense urban areas. And once new housing and developments are built on this new land acquired from the sea, do you believe that it is the poor who will be able to live there? »
In North Manila Bay, in the Bulacan area, construction of a new international airport on land reclaimed to prevent flooding is underway, with the same impact on poor coastal communities nearby .
“The fishing areas are disturbed by the works. The floods are also amplified by the destruction of the mangroves and the narrowing of the channel which accentuates the rising waters, explains Mercy Dolorito, leader of the community of Salambao, located just next door. And then, now, the authorities are talking about expelling some of our inhabitants, who will find themselves in the axis of the airstrips. This places us before a double catastrophe. »
And she adds: “We are told that this new airport embodies progress. The project aims to relieve congestion in the south of Greater Manila, where the city’s only airport is currently located, and to boost future development in the north of the Philippine megalopolis. “But this is progress that will benefit who, exactly? Certainly not to families in our community. »
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund.The duty.