Brace for La Niña, flashfloods, Zamboanga residents told

ZAMBOANGA CITY — The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical Astronomical Service Administration (PAGASA) advised local residents to prepare for the coming of the La Niña phenomenon or rainy season.

PAGASA - Zamboanga City chief Meteorologist Maribel Enriquez said the city is expected to experience heavy rains in the coming days until July.

“La Niña is more rain which is the opposite of El Niño which is dry,” Enriquez explained.

Enriquez stressed that residents living near river banks must be on alert for flashfloods and landslides especially during a heavy downpour.

Zamboanga City Water District (ZCWD) production manager Engr. Teotimo Reyes said the water firm will increase the hours of water distribution but will continue with the water rationing scheme.

“We still cannot leave the water rationing scheme we adopted in this city. This is primarily because the water level at the dam is not yet stable, there are times the water level is high and sometime it gets down,” Reyes said.

The city has been experiencing intermittent rains for many days now in many parts of the city particularly at the water shed area of Zamboanga City.

The heavy rains that swelled rivers over the weekend resulted in a temporary increase in the level of water at the ZCWD dam which, however, receded to below normal soon after.

As of noontime Sunday, the ZCWD reported that the dam level was 74.15 meters, still below the normal level of 74.20 meters.