Unchecked logging, land conversions worsened Iloilo floods
ILOILO CITY, Philippines — Experts blame the worst flooding experienced in Western Visayas mainly on deforestation and the conversion of agricultural lands to subdivisions and commercial areas.
Jerry Bionat, executive officer of the Iloilo Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council, said logging activities should be investigated because rampaging waters that inundated entire villages carried logs.
Mayor Isabelo Maquino of Sta. Barbara town, one of the hardest-hit municipalities, told a meeting of the PDCC that the logs slammed into and destroyed or damaged bridges.
Bionat also noted that the flooding hit areas previously unaffected by floodwaters and many residential areas.
Water resource engineer Andrew Margarico said that while the intensity of the rainfall was a factor in the extent and magnitude of the flooding, deforestation was one of the probable main causes of the calamity.
“If there are no trees to absorb rainfall, the water will go directly downstream,” said Margarico in a telephone interview.
Scientist and environmentalist Jurgenne Primavera said the flooding showed the alarming situation of forest cover, which shrunk to less than a million hectares out of a total land area of 30 million hectares.
“Water seeks its own level and unless it is held back by soil, roots and trees and forests, it will go to lower areas,” Primavera told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Primavera noted that until 1984 when super typhoon Undang hit, Panay Island was largely spared the onslaught of typhoons, unlike other areas like Bicol and Southern Luzon, Samar and Leyte in the Visayas.
But since Undang, typhoons have frequently hit Iloilo and its neighboring provinces. While “Undang” flooded mostly plantations, “Frank” hit residential areas and urban centers.
“We are paying for our ecological sins,” Primavera said.
Margarico, a consultant with the Engineering Development Corporation of the Philippines, also blamed the rapid and extensive conversion of agricultural lands into residential areas like subdivisions.
Pavia town and the Mandurriao District in Iloilo City have been among the areas with extensive development for residential areas.
Margaric