Help Save Manila Bay!

By Jomi Bathan

Residents of Vitas, Tondo are being endangered by rising water in Manila Bay.

Photo by AC Dimatatac

Floods in Manila are worsening due to global warming and excessive groundwater extraction.

Photo by Universal Images Group

Sitio Pariahan, 17 kilometers north of Manila, is now half-submerged under water.

Photo by Mediacorp

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In neighborhoods on the coast of Manila Bay, children treat the water as a playground. However, it's not as simple as that.

The bay water is rising at an alarming rate of 12.13 millimeters per year, which is four times the global average. The increase in rise appears to be subject to humans, as the IM4 Manila Bay program showed that the effects of surface runoff were increased by road and building construction. Greenhouse gas emmisions also appear to be assisting the sudden rise of the bay.

Because of that, the hundreds of families living in shanties in places like Vitas, Tondo, spend their days fighting off the floods. It gets even worse during the rainy season, where their houses are constantly in danger of waist-deep submersion. The people living in these places don't have enough money to leave, and most don't even think about leaving. That's where this website comes in.

We are here to help with this problem, and we can't do that without your help! Scroll down to see a few more reasons why we're doing this, and how we'll do it.

98% of Manila residents may need evacuation by 2100

The Manila Bay has been measured to be rising at about 11 millimeters per year. While this may not sound very alarming at first, 11 millimeters is four times the rise of normal seawater. In 8 years, the baywater will have risen almost 11 centimeters. In 30 years, the coast from Navotas City to Las Piñas City will be smothered by floods. In 78 years, 98% of Manila's population will have to evacuate their homes due to the rising water. The drainage systems that are supposed to stop this calamity are subpar and are not fast enough to avoid the flood. Sometimes, people throw so much trash into the waters that the machines collecting them break down.

Geologists Kelvin Roldolfo and Fernando Siringan released a study indicating that certain parts of Manila will be worse off, due to subsidization caused by excessive groundwater drainage. The IM4 Manila Bay program, released results that show that the excessive urbanization of Manila has increased surface runoff, leaving the city in still more danger. Even if we were very lucky and the water only rose a small amount, a massive part of Manila would still be destroyed by the water.

"The Island without Land" already under the water

Even now, some towns are constantly submerged. The fishing village of Sitio Pariahan, "The Island without Land", just 17 kilometers north of Manila, has streets under the water. The 36 families living in Pariahan have been living in a sinking village since 2003. Churchgoers attend the mass on boats instead of pews, while the altar gets splashed by waves. Oysters grow on the dilapidated church's grounds. Walking on pavement is a long-gone memory for the few people living in the village. This village is a window into the fate of Manila.

This city is sinking because of illegal overuse of groundwater, subsidizing the entire area. The Manila Bay flooded into the newly-made "bowls", and typhoons Mina and Ompong brought a great rain onto the area. Soon enough it was completely submerged. The possible drowning of Manila is being brought upon by humans as much as nature.

The remaining residents have no desire to leave, as they can still carry on the fishing business that the whole city once ran. Though they are on the edge of death, they survive purely because they do not have anywhere else to go. If one more typhoon hits this area, this town, and soon Manila, will be nothing more than an odd part of the ocean.

Our mission with this website is to bring attention to these endangered places, and help those affected be evacuated. Together, with your small donations, we can do our part in keeping people away from the flood. Half of the proceeds will go to evacuating the citizens of Sitio Pariahan, and the other half will go to the urban poor of Manila.
If you have any extra money around, it wouldn't hurt to donate!