Battered by typhoons: Why aren’t Philippine flood control projects working?

Manila has spent billons of dollars on flood mitigation projects but few have been completed.

Manila, Philippines – With the exception of a few pieces of hanging laundry, the first two floors of 65-year-old Veronica Castillo’s three-storey home are practically empty.

“Our belongings are up top. We build our houses upwards here. Every year the floods will scrape the ceilings of the second floor,” Castillo told Al Jazeera, surveying her home in one of Marikina city’s slums, among the most flood-prone areas of Metro Manila.

But while the government is building a pumping station to address the problem just five minutes away, construction has been going on so long that Castillo wonders whether it will ever be finished. “It’s been eight years,” she said.

Since taking office in 2022, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has spent about half a trillion dollars to address persistent flooding from extreme weather in the Philippines. But despite the significant spending, cities continue to be inundated in a country that typically sees about 20 typhoons a year.

During a speech in July, Marcos Jr boasted about his administration completing more than 5,000 flood control projects, of which 656 were in Metro Manila.