Aklan placed under state of calamity

Iloilo City — The province of Aklan has been placed under a state of calamity due to flooding brought by Tropical Storm “Quinta.”

In a special session Thursday afternoon, the provincial board passed a resolution declaring a state of calamity based on a report of affected areas and damages of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (PDRRMC)-Aklan.

Galo Ibardolaza, executive officer of the PDRRMC-Aklan, said eight of the province’s 17 towns were affected by flooding.

These included the capital town of Kalibo, Libacao, Madalag, Malinao, Lezo, Numancia, Banga and Ibajay.

At least 3,116 persons including 1,459 in Kalibo were evacuated Wednesday evening.

The PDRRMC of Iloilo late Thursday passed a resolution recommending to the provincial board the declaration of a state of calamity in the province . At least 21 towns and Passi City out of the province’s 42 municipalities experienced flooding.

Meanwhile, residents of Roxas City and three nearby municipalities have difficulty getting their potable water requirement as the water from Panay River, the only water source, has been contaminated with silt.

Glen Delgado, Metro Roxas Water District (MRWD) general manager, explained that treating the polluted water could damage the treatment plant.

The MWRD has stopped supplying water to its 20,000 service connections in Roxas City and the towns of Panay, Panitan and Ivisan since Thursday afternoon.

The MWRD water treatment plant has a capacity to treat 30,000 cubic meter daily and was inaugurated on August 2007.

Delgado said MWRD chemists and engineers have been exerting efforts to find ways on how to treat the contaminated water that resulted from floodwaters caused by typhoon Quinta.

On the other hand, the Department of Agriculture in Eastern Visayas (DA-8) reported that 979 farmers from various towns in Leyte were affected when 2,115 hectares of rice fields were flooded and damaged 1,627.75 metric tons of palay valued at P8.23 million.

While in Iloilo, the losses to agriculture reached 11,394 metric tons of rice valued at P159.1 million.

The flash floods have been attributed to a combination of monsoon rains enhanced by the typhoon and the siltation of rivers which overflowed from the mountainous areas flowed to low-lying areas in central Iloilo and those along river basins.

Leo Van Juguan, regional director of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said the hardest-hit areas were mostly those earlier identified as flooding-prone.

“There is a need to dredge river systems and to enhance flood preparations in the flood-prone areas,” Juguan said.

In Bicol, some P32 million in crops were lost due to widespread flooding spawned by torrential rains brought on by Tropical Storm ‘Quinta’ on Wednesday, the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC) said yesterday.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) said their initial report showed that 14,898 metric tons of rice and corn products valued at P32 million planted in 982 hectares of land in the provinces of Albay, Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte and Masbate were destroyed due to flooding.

The report said P29 million worth of rice crops planted in 3,357 ha were lost in Albay and the Camarines provinces, while 743 metric tons of corn worth P3.5 million planted in 1,641 ha in Camarines Sur and Masbate were also destroyed.

RDRRMC chairperson Bernardo Alejandro said damage to agricultural crops would increase with the arrival of reports from other agriculture units.

In Albay, the provincial disaster council here said they have allowed thousands of families that were housed in evacuation camps to return home after flooding subsided in their respective villages.

Maria Cristina Ador, of the Albay Public Safety and Emergency office, said there were at least 2,513 families or 13,067 people housed in various evacuation centers in the towns of Polangui, Camalig, Jovellar, Malinao and Bacacay at the height of the flood in these areas from late Wednesday to early Thursday. /INQUIRER