Rebuilding Tacloban Bay After Yolanda

In 2013 Typhoon Yolanda slammed into Tacloban City. The wind and water tore apart houses and reshaped the shore. After the disaster, residents and officials began to discuss how to heal the land and the sea near Cancabato Bay. One idea that emerged was to build a road across the water, later named the Cancabato Causeway. Officials thought it would help move goods and people faster, and attract new businesses to the area.

City planners and engineers saw the bay mainly as a corridor for traffic and investment. They turned public meetings into a checklist, treating participation as a box to tick. For them, putting up new bridges and lanes meant the city was becoming resilient, even if the natural flow of water was altered. They also believed that new infrastructure would signal progress to outside investors.

Environmental groups pushed back, using studies and legal tools to argue that the bay’s health mattered. They spoke about environmental justice, yet often framed the issue in human terms. Meanwhile, the fisherfolk who have cast nets in those waters for generations described their daily rhythm with tides and storms, hoping to keep sharing the bay with their children and grandchildren. The activists warned that ignoring the bay’s ecosystems could hurt fish stocks and increase flood risk.

These viewpoints teach us three lessons for public design. First, design lives in the relationships among water, people, and policies, not in a single imposed plan. Second, effective design must hold many voices at once, not just the loudest. Third, inviting people to help shape the project should be seen as a way to build the future, not as a final step that ends the talk. When designers listen to many stories, they can create solutions that respect both the water and the lives that depend on it.