340 barangays in Region12 'flood-prone'

KORONADAL CITY, Philippines  ----The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has listed 340 barangays in Region 12 as  “flood-prone areas” that local government units have to closely monitor during rainy days.

The Region 12 office here of DENR announced Thursday that the 340 barangays now easily gets flooded whenever heavy rains fall in surrounding hinterlands.

“These areas become `un-habitable’ once flooded,’ the DENR-12’s Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB-12) here said in an advisory released to reporters, referring to the absence of high grounds in the 340 barangays where residents can relocate at the onset of floods.

Most of the 340 barangays are traversed by rivers that have become shallow in recent decades due to heavy siltation caused by excessive clearing of lands in surrounding hinterlands for corn and rice production and propagation of other short-term crops.

Of the 340 barangays, 179 are located in North Cotabato and in Cotabato City, 72 are in Sultan Kudarat, 69 are in South Cotabato, and 20 are scattered in Sarangani, according to the MGB-12.

Many low-lying areas in the adjoining North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces and in Cotabato City are traversed by big, but now heavily silted rivers that drain at the Moro Gulf in the western coast of the also perennially-flooded Maguindanao, a component province of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The Region 12 office here of the Philippine Information Agency is now facilitating the distribution of the MGB-12’s latest disaster advisory to local government units that have jurisdiction over the flood-prone barangays.

Olive Sudaria, director of PIA-12, said the willy also to enlist the help of radio stations in disseminating the advisory.

Constancio Paye,Jr., director of MGB-12, said it is important for LGUs to lead the monitoring of the 340 during rainy days.

Paye said the MGB-12 is now providing LGUs covering the flood-prone barangays with  informatio about the bureau's latest disaster and calamity blueprints for Region 12. 

“If danger is imminent, evacuation of affected villagers is necessary,” Paye said.

Paye also urged LGUs to sctivate all barangay disaster risk reduction and management councils in the flood-prone areas.  - John Unson