IMEE: 2025 budget should include Green Infra!
October 24, 2024
IMEE: 2025 budget should include Green Infra!
Following the onslaught of typhoon "Kristine", Senator Imee Marcos stressed the need to include funding for green infrastructure in the 2025 budget to address typhoon and flooding problems.
"Let's start with simple solutions at the community level, such as expanding mangrove forests and planting indigenous bayog or Bambusa spinosa, which the ancient Filipinos used for housing, and gabion species, along riverbanks," Marcos said.
She also suggested the use of permeable materials to replace all cement or "gray infrastructure." The senator also suggested building a pilot model of a "sponge city" able to withstand and absorb heavy rainfall, similar to those proliferating in flood-prone areas in China and India.
In 2025, the infrastructure budget is expected to reach P1.28 trillion. Marcos emphasized that the government should include "green infrastructure" for the first time. "The budget is always focused on gray infrastructure, purely concrete structures, but we can't deny that these materials aren't permeable and can't absorb rainwater," Marcos pointed out.
"We need to invest in solutions like vertical parks, rooftop gardens, and void decks. The climate is deteriorating at a faster rate than anyone expected, it's time to fund green spaces even in urbanized zones. No doubt very costly would be the huge underground cistern city centers, such as those found in Amsterdam and Singapore. But far more expensive would be the lives, businesses and homes that would otherwise be destroyed, " she added.
The United Nations has reported that the Philippines is among the countries most vulnerable to disasters, and has in fact chosen the Philippines to headquarter the new Loss and Damage Fund to finance climate change adaptation.
IMEE: Idagdag ang Green Infra sa 2025 budget!
Kasunod ng pananalasa ng Bagyong Kristine, binigyang-diin ni Senadora Imee Marcos ang pangangailangang maglaan ng pondo para sa green infrastructure sa 2025 budget upang matugunan ang mga suliranin sa bagyo at pagbaha.
"Magsimula tayo sa mga simpleng solusyon sa antas ng pamayanan, tulad ng pagpapalawak ng mga bakawan at pagtatanim ng mga katutubong bayog o Bambusa spinosa, na dati nang ginagamit sa tradisyunal na pabahay at panggawa ng gabion sa bansa, sa tabi ng mga ilog," ani Marcos.
Iminungkahi rin niya ang paggamit ng mga permeable na materyal bilang pamalit sa mga semento o "gray infrastructure." Dagdag pa rito ang pagbuo ng pilot model ng isang "sponge city" na kayang sumipsip at makatayo sa malalakas na pag-ulan, katulad ng mga proyekto sa bansang China at India.
Sa 2025, inaasahang aabot sa P1.28 trilyon ang budget para sa imprastruktura. Binigyang-diin ni Marcos na dapat isama ng gobyerno ang green infrastructure sa kauna-unahang pagkakataon. "Lagi na lang naka-focus ang budget sa gray infrastructure na puro kongkretong estruktura, pero hindi natin maikakaila na ang mga ito ay hindi permeable at hindi kayang sumipsip ng tubig-ulan," paliwanag ni Marcos.
"Kailangan nating mag-invest sa mga solusyon tulad ng vertical parks, rooftop gardens, at void decks. Lumalala na nang mas mabilis ang epekto ng climate change kaysa sa inaasahan; panahon na para maglaan ng pondo para sa mga green spaces kahit sa mga urbanisadong lugar. Oo, magastos ang pagtatayo ng malalaking underground cisterns tulad ng sa Amsterdam at Singapore, pero mas mahal ang magiging kabayaran kung buhay, negosyo, at tahanan naman ang masisira," dagdag niya.
Ayon sa ulat ng United Nations, kabilang ang Pilipinas sa mga bansang pinakamahina sa mga sakuna. Sa pamamagitan ng pamumuhunan sa green infrastructure, mapapalakas ang kakayahan ng bansa na makibagay sa epekto ng climate change.
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