Monday, January 4, 2010

In Depth: Better Late than Never?

Fire Cracker was finally banned in Bansalan!

I learned through the GMA-Davao news that the mayor bans the selling of fire crackers in Bansalan. That was two days after the dry good section of public market was caught on fire. Would that be too late? I guess not! at least, we can lessen the fire cracker injuries.

What are the next steps? When I interviewed Engr. Batingal, Bansalan Municipal Engineer, He said, they will help the business owners built a temporary stalls and commented that "magsinabtanay lang tang tanan" - lets just understand each other. He further added that the budget was taken from the calamity fund but did not elaborate how much. I wish I could have interviewed the mayor him self but I believe he don't want to. I have tried to to have his time in the past and to no avail for 3 consecutive times. So I didn't bother this time. Hope he doesn't mind too if I interviewed his constituents.

I am happy to note that, the LGU had acted on this. I've heard that the the victims were given P10,000.00 to start up. Would that be enough? I would say yes! Better than nothing. At least on the 31st of December I saw side walk vendors. They have started. Yet, for the people who have their business under loan - I guess its not. How could they pay for this? I don't know.

Further, due to the fire, there is more jobless people in Bansalan. Businessmen had reduced its man power since they no longer have goods to sell. How could they work? I am looking forward for the LGU to look for a better program for these people. It’s not too late!

One thing I noticed, pesticides and fertilizers sections were also burned. Would it be hazzardous to people? Yes! According to Richard Beard, Howard Deer of Utah State University "Chemically contaminated runoff water from a fire site can be toxic to plant and animal life and can also be destructive to wastewater treatment operations. Such runoff can leave toxic residues in soils and sediments. If there is runoff, it must be contained and possibly recovered." I don't know how the LGU had handled this but I was shocked to see young and old people, I believe it’s not the store owners, but rather scavengers, on site digging for whatever they can get out of the place. There are children taking iron scraps while I can still see smokes and caught it on my cam. Two days after, at least I saw a marker, CLOSED! Too late? I guess so.

Before the incident happened, I saw lots of fire cracker vendors installed there temporary stalls near the public market. I've never imagined that it could make such damaged. If they were placed and located on a safer area the fire could have been prevented! Does the market master, or whoever is in charge, didn't realized the risk?

Well, it took millions to learn something that we could avoid by learning from others. Too late!

Better Late than Never? you be the judge.

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