Heavy rains trigger floods in Kabunsuan, Maguindanao

COTABATO CITY – Heavy downpours during the past three days have swelled rivers traversing the neighboring provinces of Shariff Kabunsuan and Maguindanao, causing them to overflow and inundate some 20,000 hectares of ricefields and corn farms.

The Department of Agriculture in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao initially pegged at P20 million the crop losses in the two provinces.

Most of the towns hit by the floods are crisscrossed by tributaries of the Allah River, which sprins from forested hinterlands in South Cotabato, and the Rio Grande de Mindanao.

According to the regional disaster coordinating council, farms in several barangays in the Maguindanao towns of Sultan sa Barongis, Mamasapano, Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Datu Piang and Talitay have been submerged in knee-deep floodwaters since Thursday afternoon.

Datu Piang Mayor Samer Uy said some villages in his municipality have also been flooded after three days of rains that caused the Dansalan and Kabulnan rivers to overflow.

Most of the flooded barangays in Shariff Kabunsuan are located near the banks of the Rio Grande de Mindanao.

Officials in Sultan Kudarat, Shariff Kabunsuan said villages traversed by the Simuay River have also been flooded.

ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan, in a text message to The STAR, said he has tasked the regional agriculture and social welfare departments to help rehabilitate the flood-hit towns.

Ampatuan earlier recommended the dredging of heavily silted rivers crisscrossing Maguindanao and Shariff Kabunsuan.

Sources in the regional public works department said the dredging requires additional funds since the programmed infrastructure grants are limited.                           – John Unson