AS FLOODWATERS rose again in Macabebe last week, the McDonald’s branch at Primark announced its closure.
More than the closing of a familiar store, it was a warning.
Days earlier, many small and medium-size business establishments had already shut their doors because of the floods. For some, it meant lost sales for a few days. For others, it has meant years of losses. Some have not even recovered the money they worked so hard to invest.
This is the cost of flooding that we rarely count.
We count houses under water, stranded commuters and damaged roads.
But who counts the businesses that stop investing?
Who counts the workers who lose income?
Who counts the families that finally decide to leave?
Our town is slowly losing more than property; it is losing economic life.
People are moving to neighboring towns or other provinces where businesses can operate and families can live with less disruption. When families leave, schools feel it. Enrolment falls, classrooms become emptier, and children who remain face learning loss from repeated class suspensions and disrupted schooling.
Even health care is affected. The Macabebe District Hospital in Batasan remains without the needed major physical and structural improvements for the past years to keep it fully functional during prolonged flooding.
Agriculture has suffered, too. Farm lands have disappeared. Fishpond operators have suffered losses year after year. Who will continue investing when the risk of another flood is always waiting?
Macababad folks should continue to demand accountability and reject relief goods as a substitute for lasting solutions.
But accountability must also mean asking our elected officials a harder question:
What has actually been done?
For years, we have seen road elevations and embankments. Yet the water still comes. Roads are raised, while communities are left behind. These may provide temporary relief, but they cannot be the whole answer.
Macabebe does not need another band-aid solution.
It needs a long-term flood-management plan based on science, drainage and river systems, land use, agriculture, housing, health, education, and economic survival.
National and local governments must work together. They must show the plans and the budgets. They must also present what worked, and what failed. Most importantly, provide what comes next.
Because the greatest danger is not simply that Macabebe floods every year.
It is that Macabebe may eventually have nothing left to save.
When businesses leave, people follow.
When people leave, schools suffer.
When schools suffer, children lose opportunities.
When farms and fishponds become unviable, livelihoods disappear.
And when livelihoods disappear, a town slowly loses its future.
This is no longer a question of how long our town can stay afloat.
Rather, how long can Macabebe afford to wait?
