Title/ Topic: Misery after the downpour: How the Barangay Bulihan suffers from flash floods in years
Summary:
Barangay Bulihan citizens have been enduring flash floods for years. Whenever heavy rain occurs, the streets are easily covered with flooding, due to poor drainage systems. This affects the citizens in their daily living and occupation.
Rationale:
Barangay Bulihan is prone to flooding, especially during rainy seasons or during typhoons. The flood worsens when Ipo Dam, Bustos Dam, and Angat Dam release water that causes rivers to overflow and flood the streets.
The citizens with low house flooring were affected by flood as the water enters their home, destroying their tangible investments such as furniture and appliances.
According to my last survey, the business owners in barangay struggle because it is more difficult to attract customers and buyers when their storefront is flooded, resulting in low income.
Transportation is tedious and dangerous as vehicles such as tricycles and motorcycles have a substantial risk of being damaged when used on a flooded road.
Exposure to floods can cause health risks such typhoid fever, cholera, leptospirosis, and hepatitis. Citizens can experience these diseases if flooding continues to happen in Bulihan, particularly the children who are more vulnerable to infection (Castillo, 2012).
The street where the Barangay Hall is located is also a flood prone area. This indicates that flooding is a severe problem as the place where the leaders reside are also impacted by it.
As the housing construction escalates in Bulihan, the narrow sewage system of the barangay is not enough causing the water to be stuck during rainy seasons.
News Gathering Plan:
Background Research
To have further background knowledge about the problem, I should do research on how and why flash floods occur every time it rains in the area. I should read about the geography of the Barangay, to confirm if it is a factor why flooding happens. An archive of news about flooding in the community can also help me to contextualize.
Then, I will search about how many people were affected by the past flooding in the barangay. I should look at the internet to see if there are projects that have been done by the local government to resolve the problem.
Lastly, familiarizing myself with laws about public and private land ownership and construction because flooding was somehow related to the continuous building of subdivisions within the barangay.
Conduct an Interview
To get a better understanding of the problem, I will conduct a face-to-face or online interview with ordinary citizens, business owners residing in the area and barangay officials. I should follow the usual ethics: asking for consent to be interviewed, to record the interview, and take down notes during the interview. I will follow a semi-structured questionnaire so I will be guided with my prepared questions, and I can ask follow-up questions if necessary.
1. Interview with an Ordinary Citizens
The purpose of the interview with ordinary citizens is to know how floods affect their personal lives. They probably experience diseases, loss of investments and food shortage. I would like to know if this is a normal phenomenon in the area during the rainy season. And what are the actions they take to endure and prevent it from affecting their lives.
2. Interview with Business Owners
Barangay Bulihan is surrounded by many enterprises and businesses. The aim of talking with citizens who run a business is to analyze how flooding affects their livelihood, and what are the precautionary measures they take to save and ensure their business.
3. Interview with Barangay Officials
The goal in this interview is to distinguish if barangay officials recognize that flooding in the community is a major problem. I aim to interview our Barangay Captain, Crisanto De Jesus and an official under the Committee on Social Services and Sanitation, Committee on Environmental Protection and Waste Management. I need to know if there are any projects that they have done in the past to resolve flooding, and why it failed. If there is one, I will ask for a copy of the document as proof and to make my news credible.
I would also like to ask them about the subdivision construction, as it was the most common answer why flooding occurs, on my past interview with the citizens. I also think that it is significant to ask the barangay officials what is their plan to address the problem. Particularly, if they have the power and machinery to fix the drainage system of the barangay.
Fact Checking
The last step is to verify the information I gathered before publishing it. I must check if the information that my subject tells me is true. Especially with the public officials, I should verify if what they say in the interview matches the documents I gathered. Lastly, I should ensure that all the information I collect from online sources is credible.
References:
Castillo, Rafael (2012 Aug 10) Beware of flood-borne diseases. Inquirer Business. https://business.inquirer.net/76097/beware-of-flood-borne-diseases
The Hydrological Area: The Bulacan Province. Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. https://pdcc.bulacan.gov.ph/hydrologicalArea.php
(2020) 4 Ways Flooding Can Impact Your Business. Entrusted. https://www.entrusted.com/4-ways-flooding-can-impact-your-business/#:~:text=Flooding%20can%20have%20a%20negative%20effect%20on%20local,a%20necessity%20for%20businesses%20in%20times%20like%20these.
Opmerkingen