Rio Grande de Mindanao cleared of water hyacinths

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – The downstream channel of Rio Grande de Mindanao has been finally cleared of vast carpets of water hyacinths that prevented its flow into the Moro Gulf and caused extensive flooding of the villages along its banks.

Col. Modesto Asto, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division (ID), said the river’s normal flow was restored at 7 a.m. yesterday after almost two weeks that soldiers and civilian volunteers have been helping in the unclogging operations.

The 6th ID deployed almost a thousand soldiers, led by its commander, Brig. Gen. Rey Ardo, along with hundreds of civilians, some of them active members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front(MILF), who helped in removing the water hyacinths.

“That removal of that destructive 30-hectare water hyacinth island there was a typical showcase of Muslim, Christian solidarity at times of disasters and calamities. We are thankful to Gen. Ardo of the 6th ID for leading his men in helping civilians in clearing that river of water hyacinths,” Sultan Kudarat Mayor Tucao Mastura, who, along with more than 500 volunteers, also helped in the clearing operations said.

The water lilies that blocked a channel of the Rio Grande de Mindanao came from the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Marsh at the boundaries of the adjoining provinces of North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao and swept downstream by rampaging floodwaters from big rivers that drain at the delta before flowing into waterways traversing hundreds of barangays in the lower delta of Central Mindanao.

Sorahayda Taha, regional director for Central Mindanao of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said she has tasked her subordinate-planners and livelihood technology experts to formulate plans on how to organize communities that can produce merchandise such as bags and decors, out of the water hyacinths.