COTABATO City, Philippines—At least two children have died in Maguindanao floods as a result of the frequent upstream rains followed by the massing of water hyacinths in the heavily silted rivers of Central Mindanao for three weeks now, the Office of Civil Defense reported Saturday.
A report from the OCD said 231,980 persons (46,396 families) have so far been displaced by the flood in Maguindanao.
Loreto Rirao, OCD director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, identified the drowning victims as Mujahid Dalagan, 13, and eight-year old Cecil Mebpandi, both residents of Maguindanao.
Rirao said Mebpandi drowned in a village creek of Pandag on September 12, but his death was only reported on Friday by town officials.
He said the other fatality was Dalagan, who drowned in a Pagalungan river on September 20.
Ridao and local officials, led by ARMM Executive Secretary Naguib Sinarimbo, were in Mother Kabuntalan town in Maguindanao on Saturday, supervising the clearing of some 10 hectares of water hyacinths that threatened to destroy the Taviran Bridge and might cause more flooded areas.
Mayor Japal Guiani Jr. of this city said the water hyacinths at the foot of Delta and Quirino bridges have caused the Pulangi River to swell and have resulted in flooding in at least five low-lying villages.
“These are the same villages that were under water during the June floods,” Guiani said.
He said clearing work of mass debris by soldiers, villagers and personnel from the Department of Public Works and Highways has been ongoing.
The OCD report said 231,980 persons (46,396 families) were displaced by the flood in Maguindanao.
Sinarimbo has sought the use of a “water-master,” a robot-like heavy equipment to complement the ongoing manual clearing work, which was described as “slow and labor-intensive.”
“We need this equipment ready at all time, as much as possible. We have to have more of this as the sudden massive appearance of these aqua-plants used to catch us by surprise,” Sinarimbo said.
Guiani said the flood has already affected city villages near surrounding rivers despite the massive clearing of hyacinths clogging waterways.
He said that as of Saturday night, 13 families of Barangay (village) Tamontaka had to flee as floodwater engulfed their homes.
“They are now temporarily housed at a multipurpose center in Tamontaka,” said Guiani, who warned residents near Rio Grande de Mindanao and its tributaries to be on alert.
He named the other “vulnerable” villages as Kalanganan, Notre Dame and Krislamville, among others.
A similar calamity in June had practically affected most of the 37 villages in the city.