Land subsidence resulting from excessive extraction of groundwater is particularly acute in East
Asian countries. Some Philippine government sectors have begun to recognise that the sea-level
rise of one to three millimetres per year due to global warming is a cause of worsening floods around
Manila Bay, but are oblivious to, or ignore, the principal reason: excessive groundwater extraction
is lowering the land surface by several centimetres to more than a decimetre per year. Such ignorance
allows the government to treat flooding as a lesser problem that can be mitigated through large
infrastructural projects that are both ineffective and vulnerable to corruption. Money would be better
spent on preventing the subsidence by reducing groundwater pumping and moderating population
growth and land use, but these approaches are politically and psychologically unacceptable.
Even if groundwater use is greatly reduced and enlightened land-use practices are initiated, natural
deltaic subsidence and global sea-level rise will continue to aggravate flooding, although at substantially
lower rates.