Thousands affected by flashloods in Maguindanao
Climate Change/Environment • 08:30 AM Mon Apr 11, 2022
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By:
John M. Unson
A flooded area in Pikit town in North Cotabato. (John Unson)
COTABATO CITY -- More than 50 barangays in lowlands in central Mindanao got inundated after the 220,00-hectare Liguasan Delta overflowed due to heavy downpours the past three days.
Hundreds of families were displaced by flashfloods that swept through dozens of barangays on Saturday in the neighboring Pikit, North Cotabato and in Pagalungan and Montawal towns both in Maguindanao.
The three towns are touted as gateways to the Liguasan Delta, a catch basin for large rivers that springs from hinterlands in central Mindanao’s Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato, North Cotabato and Bukidnon provinces.
The Bangsamoro government’s Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidence, or READi contingent, dispatched Sunday emergency responders to Pagalungan and Montawal to provide villagers food and other essential provisions.
Rescue teams from the Bureau of Fire Protection-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and members of the local police relocated on Saturday night no fewer than a hundred families in Barangay Limbo in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao to higher grounds due to the inundation of villages in the area.
Personnel of the Sultan Kudarat Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office are now attending to the needs of the flood-stricken villagers, according to Mayor Shameem Mastura.
Bangsamoro Local Government Minister Naguib Sinarimbo, who is overseeing the regional government’s READi disaster and calamity response outfit, said they shall extend relief support to residents in all flooded towns in Maguindanao.