Overview of the SM’s Mall of Asia complex in Pasay City.

Amidst the construction boom in recent years with structures being built in many parts of metropolis and other major cities in the country, SM Prime Holdings (SM Prime), the largest integrated property developer in the Philippines, takes into main considerations the safety of lives and properties in all of its projects.

SM malls, for one, are not simply being erected without taking much time designing and building the structures that could endure any potential dangers like massive flooding and other forms of devastation.

One of the key safety features that SM malls have is the enormous “catchment tanks” to help mitigate the impact of typhoons on both lives and property. The tanks certainly incur additional costs in building the malls, but for SM Prime the payback goes beyond anything that money can pay for.

“Investing in disaster risk resilience is definitely one of our key strategic goals. While the cost of DRR continues to rise, let us see it as an investment that translates not only to immeasurable returns but a greater safeguarding of our communities, our customers and the general public,” SM Prime Director Hans T. Sy told the recent Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, a biennial forum by the UNISDR held in Mexico.

These catchment tanks can hold rainwater equivalent to roughly a combined 45,328 cubic meters of floodwater or about 18 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Specifically, SM BF Paranaque can hold 5,544.71 cubic meters of rainwater; SM Masinag 15,033.40 cubic meters; SM Center Angono 1,600.00 cubic meters; and SM City San Mateo 9,500.00 cubic meters.

The same feature was also made at its latest SM CDO Downtown Premier in Cagayan de Oro where a catchment basin was also built to hold 13,650.00 cubic meters of rainwater, equivalent to about 13.6 million 1-liter soda bottles or about five Olympic-sized swimming pools.

SM Prime paid careful attention to the area which has seen its fair share of heavy flooding.The catchment tank capacity was calculated based on the maximum recorded rainfall in CDO City for 24 hours which reached 237.2 millimeters and the 24-hour rainfall intensity of 455 millimeters experienced from Typhoon Ondoy in September 2009.

Similar safety feature was made in SM City Marikina that stands on stilts and allows the free flow of rainwater to the Marikina river through its two-level basement parking. It was the key to mitigate the effect of massive flooding during the 2009 devastation made by Typhoon Ondoy. SM Prime’s investments in disaster resilience for SM City Marikina prevented damage to stores and loss of merchandise for its tenants amounting to P1 billion. For SM Prime, understanding and recognizing disaster risks in areas of business are important because of both the direct and indirect impact they have on lives and property.

“By investing in resilience, SM Prime minimizes vulnerability, better safeguards physical assets, reduces recovery expenses and contributes to local government efforts. Ultimately we are able to better protect lives, and have safer, healthier, happier communities,” Sy had said during the forum.

SM Prime allocates 10 percent of its capital expenditure for disaster resilience features when building malls. For its SM Mall of Asia and the entire Mall of Asia Complex, it shielded the area from tides and waves. A three-kilometer seawall stretches throughout the complex. Its foundation is deeply-rooted on the sea floor. On top of the seawall dike is a meter-high L-shaped wave return, preventing waves from toppling over the seawall during high waves or storm surges. A drainage channel is also located on the other side of the seawall which is a line of defense against waves that breach the wave return. This allows water to enter the channel and pass through the pipes back to Manila Bay.

At SM Seaside Cebu, SM Prime hired design experts who gave extra attention to the challenges of weather, especially typhoon and flooding given its location by the sea. SM Prime backfilled soil onto the reclaimed property specifically on the roads so that the whole complex where the mall sits is elevated by approximately 4.5 meters from the city roads.

SM Prime’s innovation features in all of its malls are all part of its sustainability program involving these disaster resilience initiatives and corporate social responsibilities, among others.