A life-and-death issue

With the Philippines remembering the first anniversary of the days when the deadly and destructive storms 'Ondoy' (Ketsana) and 'Pepeng' (Parma) struck Metro Manila and a great part of Luzon, now is a good time to remind ourselves of the causes of the great flood. One of them was the unprecedented volume of water that Ondoy brought: about six months’ worth of rain in just 24 hours. But this was aggravated by other causes, like discarded plastic bags clogging esteros, canals and other waterways.