Mines bureau starts hazard mapping in Mandaue

CEBU, Philippines - The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB)-7 yesterday started hazard mapping in the 27 barangays of Mandaue City.

The mapping is expected to be finished by Friday.

City Planning Officer Florentino Nimor said the city has been assisting the MGB in identifying vulnerabilities of each barangay.

City Planning Officer Architect Florentino yesterday said clustered barangays almost have the same concerns.

“Kay kon ingon nga adto sa mga clustered barangays nga naas kabukiran, these are susceptible to landslides ug kining naas patag susceptible to floodings pud ni sila” Nimor said.

Nimor said MGB’s existing hazard map is not specific to Mandaue.

“It covers Mactan and even Consolacion and Liloan,” he said.

The new hazard map will identify each barangay’s level of susceptibility to floods and landslides.

Four engineers from MGB will go to the barangays and verify the information provided by the existing hazard map.

Residents will be asked about their experience with floods and landslides.

Nimor said Mandaue is lucky to be chosen as one of the few local government units to be mapped.

Based on the existing hazard map, which has been made more than a year ago, Mandaue has low susceptibility to floods while it has low to moderate susceptibility to landslides.

Barangays that are susceptible to flooding are Centro, Looc, Paknaan, Umapad and Opao. Susceptible to landslides are barangays Tawason and Canduman.

Nimor said he has informed the barangays about their vulnerabilities.

After the hazard mapping, the MGB personnel will have an exit conference with Mayor Jonas Cortes.

Nimor said they will inform the mayor about the results of their mapping.  (FREEMAN)