Extreme rainfall, not mining, logging led to Panay floods
ILOILO CITY, Philippines — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has said that extreme rainfall, not mining and logging activities, are to blame for the massive flooding that ravaged Panay Island amid warnings by environmental and Church groups that denuded forests caused some of the worst flooding experienced in the region.
In a statement, DENR Regional Executive Director Lormelyn Claudio said abnormal amounts of rainfall triggered the floodwaters that inundated entire villages.
“Extreme rainfall on June 20 saturated the soil, loosened root systems and, with strong winds, trees were uprooted and were carried downstream,” said Claudio.
She said the rainfall reached 354 millimeter in one day, much higher than the average rainfall of 196 mm.
This was compounded by the setting in of the high tide reaching 1.8 meters, which prevented the floodwaters from the Tigum and Aganan Rivers, main tributaries of Iloilo, from discharging into the sea.
Claudio said because of this, the waters accumulated and spread to low-lying areas.
The DENR claimed there has been no significant logging on Panay Island for the past decade.
Claudio said that forest cover in Western Visayas had even increased to 16 percent in 2007 from 2 percent in 1986 and 8.72 percent in 2002 because of reforestation programs.
She refuted reports, including those of local officials, that logs were carried by floodwaters.
Mayor Isabelo Maquino of Sta. Barbara town, one of the hardest hit areas, earlier said in a meeting of the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council, that logs swept by the floodwaters slammed into and destroyed bridges.
“Uprooted trees, not illegally cut trees, were inventoried by our teams,” she said.
But environmental groups in Western Visayas called on officials to consider the massive flooding as a warning and wake up call to stop and prevent the further deterioration of the island’s environment.
The Madia-as Ecological Movement (MEM) said officials should now heed the oft-repeated warning of environmental groups and experts on the precarious situation of the island’s forest cover and mountains.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and experts earlier blamed mining and logging operations as among the major reasons for the massive flooding that killed hundreds, left thousands homeless and destroyed property and crops worth billions of pesos.
CBCP President and Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo and environment experts said the mountains of Panay are denuded because of the clearing of remaining trees.
But the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines last week said the Church and other groups should investigate first before blaming mining as the cause of the flooding.
Ma. Geobelyn Lopez, spokesperson of the Madia-as Ecological Movement, said that while mining is not solely to blame, “it is one of the major factors.”
She pointed out that less than 18 percent of the 600,400-hectare land area of Panay Island has trees, much lower than the ideal 54 percent forest cover.
This could be worsened by approved mining applications on the island that give timber rights which allow the mining applicants to clear forests, said Lopez.
She called on local government units not to allow large-scale mining especially in Capiz where the provincial board is planning to repeal a 25-year moratorium on mining activities in the province.
Melvin Purzuelo, coordinator of the Green Forum-Western Visayas, said Panay’s mountain slopes “have been denuded long ago.”
While there is no current large-scale mining in Panay, Purzuelo said there are many “unregulated” quarrying and excavations that erode riverbanks.
Purzuelo said that environmental groups have warned years before that flash floods could be worse in Panay than the ones that hit Southern Luzon years ago because the Sierra Madre mountain range has a denser forest cover than the Panay mountain ranges.
“Environmental groups have been repeating this warning in various fora but local government officials and line agencies in the region totally ignored the conditions of the mountain ranges. There are no interventions to protect and enhance the natural forests that cover less than 7 percent of the island,” said Purzuelo in a statement.
He also blamed “massive” quarrying of the river systems for roads and other construction projects, which have eroded riverbanks of Suage-Magapa and Tigum-Aganan rivers.
Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Philippine Daily Inquirer
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