"I want to know, have you ever seen the rain..."

"I want to know, have you ever seen the rain..." 

 (Photo Credit: cebucitylife.com)

And there goes the song by Creedence Clearwater, telling us how same is the rain during sunny days when sunlight pours in as unhindered as raindrops. But in the case of rain in SM City Cebu, its totally different. 

Lately, I have observed that SM City Cebu gets flooded always when there is medium to heavy rain. I have made a little research on when roughly this menace have started. According to articles, it started just when Cebu City cemented those roads. 

Come to think of it, these roads are just 200-300 meters away from a river that could have allow the waters to exit towards the sea. It is a no-brainer, the problem is the drainage system. 

If we are going to look back before (NRP)North Reclamation Area was made, the seashore was just at the back of Mabolo Elementary School, so Mabolo Church was just facing the seashore. The river between NRP and Mabolo is a man-made river. It is supposedly able to give way for the water that would come down from Nivel Hills Lahug, then Juan Luna, towards the sea, and all the waters including from NRP.

Before IT Park was made, it was a single runway airport. Soft ground, grasses, trees, around the airport could minimize the rushing of water towards Juan Luna, Mabolo. Now it was also cemented, so there is no way it could help absorbing all those waters. And now even Mabolo, including the access road from my apartment towards the main road, gets flooded.

As a conclusion, rainwater is a blessing, it depends on how we utilize it. The flood in SM City Cebu will always be a headache if proper drainage system will not be applied. If we do not change something for this, we always get the same result. I hope our government officials will have to consider this problem and review the city drainage master plan.

For the readers, at least we are aware of the situation.