Diseases hound Cotabato evacuees

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Dysentery and skin diseases now plague the temporary evacuation sites here and nearby towns housing villagers displaced by floods spawned by heavy downpours the past seven days.

Barangay officials here said many of their affected constituents are now afflicted with diarrhea and respiratory ailments apparently due to the harsh conditions in the evacuation sites.

A child named Warda Kumilang reportedly drowned in a flooded barangay here yesterday after rampaging waters flowing downstream the city’s Bucana area overturned the banca she and several companions were riding.

More than 20 of the 37 barangays here are now flooded, after big rivers criss-crossing the city and adjoining Sultan Kudarat, North Kabuntalan, Datu Odin Sinsuat and Kabuntalan towns, all in the first district of Maguindanao, swelled due to heavy rains and overflowed, inundating hundreds of barangays nearby.

Local officials said some 90 houses in low-lying areas in North Cotabato’s neighboring Aleosan and Midsayap towns, both near the 220,000 Liguasan Marsh, were swept away by flashfloods the other day.

Lt. Col. Roy Galido, commanding officer of the Army’s 40th Infantry Battalion, said they have evacuated to higher areas more than 5,000 evacuees from flooded villages in North Kabuntalan and Midsayap.

Galido said combatants of the 40th IB, local officials and members of the Army’s 5th Special Forces Battalion equipped with airboats donated by the Australian government distributed yesterday relief supplies for some 3,000 evacuees from flooded areas in North Kabuntalan.

“We hope to serve more in the coming days. We are hoping the weather will improve soon,” Galido said. The condition of these evacuees is very pitiful.”

Local officials in North Kabuntalan and Kabuntalan towns said 39 schools in the adjoining municipalities have also been flooded, prompting teachers to shut them down temporarily.

Volunteers, among them barangay officials, Muslim secessionist rebels and soldiers from the Army’s 603rd Brigade and 6th Infantry Division, managed to partially clear the portion of the Rio Grande de Mindanao clogged by water lilies last week, but big chunks of the aquatic plants still keep on flowing down from the Liguasan Marsh.

More than 20 towns in the second district of Maguindanao, all located in the upper delta of the province, are also flooded after tributaries of the Allah river, which springs from forested areas in the neighboring South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces, also swelled due to torrential rains the pastdays.