200 tons of water hyacinths removed from bridge

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Volunteers on Tuesday removed some 200 tons of water hyacinths that tangled with the columns of the Tamontaka Bridge and blocked the flow of the river for three days in Cotabato City.

Members of the Army’s 5th Special Forces Battalion helped clear the downstream channel of the Tamontaka River, which drains at the Moro Gulf in west of Cotabato City, using powerful airboats.

The six-hour operation was initiated by combined Army SF combatants, workers of the Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Relief Team of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and the ARMM’s Department of Public Works and Highways after villagers residing along the river banks complained of inaction by local engineering authorities.

Cotabato City’s District Engineering Office (DEO) is under the DPHW in Administrative Region 12, which is based in Koronadal City.

Catholic station dxMS here reported Tuesday that text messages from beleaguered residents warning of impending overflow of the Tamontaka River- after having been clogged with aquatic plants- reporters forwarded to certain officials of the Cotabato City DEO were all unattended.   

The Tamontaka River is often clogged by vast carpets of water hyacinths from the Liguasan Delta, forced downstream by floodwaters spawned by incessant rains.

Laisa Alamia, ARMM’s executive secretary, said workers of Maguindanao’s 1st District Engineering Office, which is under the regional public works department, also provided manpower support in removing the water hyacinths underneath the Tamontaka Bridge.

The ARMM government, the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, and volunteer organizations, among them the Recon Rock, a group of two-way radio owners, thrice cleared portions of the Tamontaka River from water hyacinths since January.