Manila in Philippines, the island's capital, is gradually sinking under the water

Problems

• The reasons why Manila in the Philippines is gradually sinking into the water.

  In ten or twenty years coastal areas around Manila in Philippines, home to millions of people, will be permanently underwater, according to research by the University of the Philippines.
  In the last 50 years the sea level has increased more than 80 centimetres. 
  
  Manila is one of the most densely populated and fastest growing economic centres in the world. 
  As the land around Manila Bay sinks and the sea level rises, the flooding is spreading not only in the city, but also in the surrounding provinces.
  
  After each heavy rainfall, several areas of the capital flood. The traffic grind to a standstill and people wade through chest-high water.
  
  Homemade rafts are paddled through the streets. The inhabitants to have become used to the flooding, which usually subsides by the following day.
  
  The sea level rise which began in the 1960’s coincided with the industrialisation of the Philippines. 
  In the capital, where skyscrapers rose rapidly, houses and office buildings were built in flood prone areas, and are particularly vulnerable to the rising sea today. 
  
  A study by the World Bank describes how the ground is still sinking, even though the Government stopped pumping up groundwater for infrastructure projects decades ago. If the Government does not protect the coastline in the future, wading through waist-deep floods during Manila’s rainy season will become normal, scientists warn.
  
  The sprawling mangrove forests held vulnerable coastal soils in place, broke waves and buffered the shore from storms and provided habitats or thousands of species. 
  
  But today, fewer than 1,236 acres of mangrove forests remain, leaving this low-lying coastline of Manila Bay, one of the most vulnerable to typhoon storm surges and tides on the planet.