24 of 37 Cotabato City villages flooded
FOUR MORE barangays in Cotabato City have been flooded in the past three days, affecting more residents. Latest reports from the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council indicated that 24 of the city’s 37 barangays are now flooded due to the continuous swelling of nearby rivers caused by heavy downpour in the mountains since last week. Halima Satol-Ibrahim, city information officer, said on Sunday that as of July 21, the official count of flood-stricken residents rose to 18,684 families, or 91,537 individuals, from only more than 12,000 two days before. City officials, led by Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi, toured the flooded barangays on Thursday for initial relief missions. Ms. Satol-Ibrahim earlier said the city mayor’s office and the Sangguniang Panlalawigan might put the city under a state of calamity if flooding continues to spread. Rivers straddling Cotabato City started to overflow more than week ago, inundating 20 barangays first and affecting more than 12,000 residents. The city’s 37 barangays are crisscrossed by tributaries of the Rio Grande de Mindanao and many other large rivers that connect to the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta in the upper valley of central Mindanao. The Liguasan Delta is a catch basin for rain-generated floodwaters from mountain ranges in North Cotabato, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Bukidnon provinces. The office of the mayor and the City Schools Division of the Department of Education are planning to hold special classes on higher ground for children from schools in flooded barangays. Ms. Satol-Ibrahim said 10 city schools have so far been affected. — philstar.com