Lilies also cited in flooding woes

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    CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Water hyacinths, just like in Cotabato City, have been cited as a major factor in severe flooding that hit 18 towns, including this city, in a situation that led to the declaration of a state of calamity in this province.

    Gov. Lilia Pineda said huge volumes of water hyacinths or water lilies from higher grounds in Nueva Ecija were pushed down to clog waterways in her province, thus slowing down the flow of floodwaters towards the Manila Bay.

    Only recently, water lilies were also blamed for recent flooding in Cotabato City. The issue led to some heated word exchange between the President and city Mayor Japal Guiani who initially cited lack of help from the national government.

    Pineda said the flooding wrought by tropical storm Falcon over the weekend was unexpected, as Pampanga was not directly hit by the weather disturbance.

    In an interview, Pineda said no less than P300 million worth of infrastructures and agricultural products might have been damaged by the floods which collapsed dikes along the Pampanga river and other channels.

    The other day, the provincial board declared a state of calamity in Pampanga as recommended by the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC).

    Flooding in some areas significantly abated yesterday, but Provincial Administrator Andres Pangilinan, Jr. said that at the height of the floods    last Sunday, 88,185 families or 290,818 individuals were affected by floodwaters with depths ranging from one foot to five feet.

    Pangilinan said that the widespread flooding “paralyzed the economic activities in the different municipalities and in the City of San Fernando as major thoroughfares were rendered impassable to light vehicles.”

    Noting unusual weather patterns worldwide, Pineda said she is slated to meet with the Department of Education (DepEd) to discuss the possibility of relocating schools to areas not prone to flooding.

    “We can’t go on repairing school buildings every year because every rainy season, they get damaged by floods.

    We must move these schools to safer grounds, so we also prevent the education of our kids from being disrupted over long periods by floods,” she said.

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