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Philippines

Cotabato floods displace up to 100,000 persons

COTABATO CITY, Aug. 5 (PNA) -- More than 100,000 persons here have been affected by floods that continue to rise following days of incessant rains in Maguindanao and North Cotabato, officials here said Sunday.

Lawyer Cynthia Guiani Sayadi, Cotabato City administrator, said 26 of Cotabato City's 37 villages have been submerged by flood waters for a week already forcing thousands of resident to move to safer grounds.

Some affected families prefer to stay in their homes and used bancas in moving to other places while majority opted to move to temporary evacuation centers put up by the city government.

Relief operations have been on going for those whose houses were flooded and evacuated.

Sayadi clarified that only those who evacuated families receive emergency relief assistance.

Priority for assistance are evacuees whose houses were submerged by waist deep flood water.

Sayadi explained that the clogged drainage canals contributed to the rising flood water.

Most of esteros and waterways in the city have illegal structures which the local government were trying to clear to allow continuous flow of water.

The city legal office gave owners of illegal structures erected above waterways or beside it to remove the structures within five days or the city engineering office will conduct demolition operation.

The city, sitting in between Rio Grande de Mindanao and Tamontaka River, served as catch basin of flood water from Liguasan marshland in Maguindanao which also served as flood deposits of water from North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato.

Since the two huge rivers have been heavily silted through the years, flood water easily flow toward residential and agriculture areas, damaging properties and millions worth of agricultural crops.

The Notre Dame University, the premier university in the city had been flooded with knee deep water for about a week now.

State weather bureau reported Sunday that a low pressure area had been spotted off Gen. Santos City and had triggered moderate to heavy down pour overnight.

Disaster officials in the city and in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) fear of higher floods as water flowing toward the Moro Gulf would return during high tide.

The ARMM government had been pushing for construction of huge dikes to address the perennial problem of flooding.

Engr. Emil Sadain, ARMM’s regional DPWH secretary, told reporters the activation of the disbanded Task Force on Mindanao River Basin Rehabilitation and Development (TFMRBRD) would help address the problem.

The TFMRBRD, then chaired by Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, was disbanded by President Aquino and transferred all its functions to the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA).

Sadain said the disbanded task force was able to create a master plan before it was disbanded that could be very viable.

He said the master plan recommended the construction of dikes and simultaneous dredging of Rio Grande and Tamontaka Rivers.

Sadain said the same solution was tried and tested in other parts of the country, especially in the Pasig river and communities around Mt. Pinatubo. (Edwin O. Fernandez-PNA)