Just like that, the dry season will be over soon and Cebuanos need to be ready for the rainy days.
The state’s weather bureau announced that the wet season is likely to start some time in the final week of May to the second week of June.
While the shift to the wet season will be a welcome respite from the scorching heat, all sectors must be prepared against the possible rain-wrought calamity.
Even as we hope for the best, Cebu’s drainage system and waterways remain lamentably ill-suited for an onslaught of torrential downpours.
This should have nudged leaders of the metropolis to prioritize in the summer the dredging of sewers and other waterways as well as the clearing of riverbanks and other easement zones.
Unfortunately, resources, as the casual observer saw, flowed towards coating roads with fresh layers of asphalt.
Many have called the bluff. Conversations among jeepney passengers excoriated politicos who renovated good roads if only to score brownie points for the barangay elections.
Now that politicking season is through, we hope that the precautions will be taken to prevent loss of life and damage to property when the heavens open and the floods arise.
Residents should cooperate.
There is much to contribute.
Settle somewhere safe.
Stop throwing garbage into water bodies and drainage systems.
Clear easement zones of obstructions.
Observe proper hygiene to prevent a dengue epidemic and incidents of water-borne diseases like leptospirosis.
Plant seedlings that will one day grow into trees and help in flood control.
All stops should be pulled so that our experience of rain will make of us pluviophiles rather than hydrophobiacs.