'Zoraida' causes floods in landfall area, fizzles out in Agusan

TROPICAL DEPRESSION Zoraida triggered floods in Mindanao's eastern coastal province of Davao Oriental when it made a landfall in Baganga town Tuesday morning (November 12), but its weak thrust inland caused minimal damage as it fizzled out later when it reached further inland in Agusan del Sur.

Evacuees and disaster and rescue personnel told radio and television interviews that preparations helped cushioned the impact after Zoraida entered Mindanao through Baculin Bay, Baganga, the same town where super typhoon Pablo also made its landfall and devastated a large swath of eastern Mindanao in December last year.

While super howler Yolanda brought strong winds last week even though it passed through the eastern Visayas, Zoraida only brought rains and kept disaster agencies on tight watch over the main river systems in the Davao Region, which showed elevated water level and strong currents.

Rains had been continuous in Davao Oriental but intermittent in Davao del Norte and Compostela Valley since Monday.  Vigil was being made in the headlands of New Corella, Asuncion, Kapalong and Santo Tomas towns of Davao del Norte, which feed into the Hijo River,  Libuganon River and Salug River, the usual waterways that overflow their banks and send floods to its riverbank villages, and into the lowlands of Sto. Tomas, Carmen and Tagum City.

Some farms have been harvested early of their root crops as they were told to evacuate since Monday night.

Residents in seven riverside barangays in Tagum City evacuated though when they were flooded.  Riverside barangays in Panabo City were also flooded, and in Carmen town, three feet of floodwaters also hit Barangay New Camiling when the dike yielded. Buses were ordered to detour, or stop plying the Davao City and Tagum City route over this flood.

Disaster officials were also validating report of one missing person in Kapalong town.

Government was also looking at continuous rains in Compostela Valley that may cause landslide in the mountainous areas, including the populated small-scale gold areas in Diwalwal in Monkayo town and Boringot in Pantukan town.

Residents in New Bataan and Compostela towns, the most heavily battered towns when Pablo struck last year, have already prepared themselves and had sought safer grounds.

In Davao City, heavy rains poured as early as dawn Tuesday but its six rivers only showed slight increase in water level, said Dante Donayre, operation officer of the Davao City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.

There were no major damage caused.

Preemptive safety moves save many Mindanao lives, properties

EARLY preparations, and being spared of being in the path of storm Yolanda's fury, minimized loss of lives and properties in the northern and northeastern part of Mindanao, disaster and relief agencies would say.

Only one death was recorded, in Surigao del Sur's coastal village of Lingig, when an electric post fell on a fisherman trying to salvage his floating banca. Incidentally, the victim was already in the evacuation center but decided to return to the coast after sea waters rose and pounded on the coast.

Overall, about 18,000 residents in the Caraga Region, comprised by the two Surigao and two Agusan provines, sought shelter in different evacuation centers, mainly public gymnasium, public schools and in houses of relatives.

A bigger number, more than 70,000, also moved away from the coastal areas of Misamis Oriental, which was one the heavily battered areas in 2011 when a weaker typhoon Sendong, but carrying more rains, sent floodwaters cascading though its mountains, carrying logs, and smashed through their way to sea, carrying people and properties.

Several hours after Yolanda made its landfall in Eastern Samar at 9:00 am Friday, evacuees from the two Surigao provinces already began returning to their homes, except for those living in the island province of Dinagat off Surigao del Norte, which was near the typhoon path.

"Yolanda did not create much negative impact in the Agusan side of the Caraga Region, except for continued heavy downpour. Only a few areas, in fact, were flooded," said.Liza Mazo, director for the Caraga Region of the Office of Civil Defense.

Only moderately strong winds were felt and scarttered raincloud formations were seen elsewhere down south of Mindanao, and classes were not called off in Davao City, in the southeastern part of Mindanao. Many classes though, were not full of their pupils and students, as the projected fury of the storm scared many residents.

Typhoon Yolanda, (international code name Haiyan) packed winds of 315 kilometers per hour and gustiness of 379 kms. when it made landfall in Eastern Samar in central Philippines on Friday

The wind velocity amazes scientists after it was estimated two days earlier of packing 193 kms and gustiness of 202 kms, speeds that already make this typhoon of the most ferocious typhoons or tropical cyclones in the world.

These photographs show why the center of the storms is often termed the eye of the storm.

Pacific coastal villages emptied as ‘Yolanda’ nears

DAVAO CITY, the Philippines  - The southern Philippine island of Mindanao appears to be heeding the bitter and tragic lessons of two devastating typhoons of Sendong and Pablo, as the northeastern coastal villages were already emptied of villagers by Wednesday, and as cities and provinces away from the projected path of the coming typhoon firmed up evacuation and rescue capabilities in case of a typhoon detour.

On Wednesday, residents abandoned all the coastal barangays of Dinagat Island off Surigao del Norte, the entire coastal villages of Surigao del Norte and the five coastal municipalities of Surigao del Sur,  said Liza Mazo, director for the Caraga Region of the Office of Civil Defense.

“These are all voluntary evacuations that happened on Wednesday,” she told BusinessMirror on a mobile phone interview Thursday.

She said the Caraga Region has been placed on Signal No. 3 as the typhoon Yolanda, packing winds of as strong as 250 kilometers per hour and with wider path, continued to trek on its projected route and expected to enter Southern Samar by 9:00 am Friday.

“We just hope that it would not make a landfall and only travel through the seas,” she said.

As of Thursday afternoon, the eastern coasts of the two Surigao provinces, which face the Pacific Ocean, already experienced heavy downpour carried by gusty winds. The interior provinces of Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur, sustained only heavy downpour though, the gusty winds dispersed by the mountains between the Surigao provinces and the Agusan provinces.

Further down south to Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley, residents were equally prepared, scared by the repeat of the tragic landfall of Typhoon Pablo in December 2012. Almost 2,000 persons were either killed or missing, more than half of whom were lost in the mudslide that covered a big part of New Bataan town of Compostela Valley.

A teacher in Cateel, Davao Oriental interviewed by a radio station here on Thursday, said residents were seen gathering in the town center awaiting official directive of town officials.  Cateel, along with Baganga and Boston , were flattened by Pablo.

Reports from Misamis Oriental and Lanao del Norte, and their cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, indicated organized evacuation plan and stocking of food and water. These areas were also the ravaged places when typhoon Sendong hit northern Mindanao in December 2011.

In Davao City, the Emergency Response Unit 911 has briefed locally organized disaster rescue teams in the barangays on their coordination already put in  place several years ago.

Emmanuel Jaldon, chief of the unit, said disaster monitoring would be helped by the cameras and gadgets to monitor the rise in river water levels, which were installed in three rivers south of downtown, and including the large Bankerohan River running across the southern edge of downtown.

Liwayway Caligdong, assistant division head of the City Social Services and Development Office, said the social welfare officers and barangay health workers assigned in the district offices would be expected to ensure an organized evacuation to designated centers, which were usually government structures, commonly the barangay gymnasium, public school buildings and even chapels.

“We appeal to all residents to please, prepare for this strong typhoon coming our way,” he said. “Stock up on food and water, ensure you have flashlights, candles, and other survival items.”

Davao City eyes new transport system for near 1M commuters daily

 

DAVAO CITY –A city councilor here said the city gave the green signal to firm up options on a sustainable transport system after a Japan-funded study found a messed up transportation network where some high-density areas were found to have few public transport to serve them.

Councilor Leonardo Avila III said initial study showed that an average of 800,000 persons commute daily in the city, whose public transport routes were found to overlap in certain areas, but mainly in the poblacion area, and leaving 51 barangays with either poor transport service or non at all.

Avila said that the City Council would wait for the final result of the sustainable urban transport study, the brief of which was presented to the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and industry and other private parties on September 30 at the Marco Polo Hotel here.

The study listed three sets of “challenges” confronting decision-makers in the city government, some issues of which involved important policy structures, such as the land use policy, infrastructure and allocation of financial resources.

It found out that the “large number of vehicles [are] difficult to regulate or manage, and is often the cause of traffic congestion”. The city has a total number of vehicles reaching 15,115, of which the jeepneys and Filcab, or the small-sized multicabs (7,278), taxi (3,602) and motorized tricycles (3,105) were regulated by the city, and the buses (664) and airconditioned vans (466) were regulated by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board and the Land Transportation Office.

The overlapping routes of these vehicles have turned many poblacion streets into difficult traffic gridlock as drivers compete for passengers and block or slow down traffic flow, and leave some high density residential areas with few public vehicles, such as those in the Toril area.

In its presentation, proponents of the study said that in the southwesternmost district of Toril, 21 barangays have poor public transport service and another 20 barangays have not been served by jeepneys.

It said that this was a case of a poorly served or unserved high-density area, with 412,000 residents, comprising a third of the proposed concentrated urbanized area in the western side of the city.

Avila said that at certain hours of the day, one third of the 800,000 commuters could not find a ride for as long as three hours of waiting. He said this happens during the evening rush hours.

And recently with the regular rains that send floods to the major thoroughfares, a bigger number of commuters would be seen waiting for hours to take a ride as the Filcabs, or the multicabs, either opt to go home or get their vehicles stuck in waist-deep waters.

Avila said that options for a proposed transportation system include buses along major routes and establishing a bicycle lane to cut reliance on fossil fuels.

“What’s clear with the study is that it tells us that it is already time to do something,” he said.

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PHL major utility companies await bid for Davao City's P10 B surface water extraction

DAVAO CITY - The country's powerhouse in water utility operations have indicated their interest to bid for this city's water extraction project that would double the existing water production for one fo the country's fastest growing city.

Among the companies that participated an April roadshow this year were the Maynilad of Manuel V. Pangilinan, the Manila Water of the Ayala group, the MacroAsia of Lucio Tan, the Prime Water of former Sen. Manny Villar, and the DMCI of the Consunji group.  A Korean company, K Water, also participated in the roadshow.

Imelda Magsusi, spokesperson of the DAvao City Water District, said another Manila-based group, the Jose Virgilio Angeles, was the only company that offered an "unsolicited" proposal on how to develop a viable extraction operation of the still pristine Tamugan River up north of this city to augment the drinking water production.

"All these companies, and othe minor ones, attended our roadshow and they all indicated to participate in the bidding," she said.

The DCWD has eyed an extraction operation in the Tamugan River more than 70 kilometers north of downtown, and where it flows in the still remote hinterlands. Its project proposal would want to extract a minimum of 280,000 cubic meters of water per day, slightly more than double the current production of its 52 wells.

Its current production however, was already considered sufficient for the population at the 2011 level, which was estimated to be around 1.3 million residents. A 2008 report of the city said that the population was already 1.5 million, a figure that still ranked the city the fourth populous city after Quezon City, Manila and  Caloocan.

"Current production is already not sufficient anymore. So we have to embark on this project," she told a news briefing here on Monday.

She said that DCWD has clarified with the interested bidders that it wanted a joint venture agreement along the government concept of a private-public partnership.

She said though that the bidding would have to wait for the final decision of the Office of the Government Corporate Council, the governing body of all government-owned and controlled corporations. She said though, that the OGCC has indicated it wanted the 2008 guideline of the National Economic Deverlopment Authority to govern the bidding process. Under the guideline, bidders are required to match the bid amount per cubic meter.

Magsuci said that the agency wanted the bidding to be finished this year to start the construction that would take another three years. "Our timetable is for the project to start operating by 2017," she said.

The JVA proposal, for instance, has indicated that it would initially start producing 250,000 cubic meter per day and to increase it later.

"We would like to rest the extraction at the Dumoy aquifers to allow it to recharge," she said. The Dumoy area account for 36 of the 52 drilling wells in the city, and its underground water has landed the city as having the second best tasting water in the world.

She said that upon start of the Tamugan River extraction, six of the Dumoy wells would be stopped, and to be followed by the remaining 30 wells. The wells would only resume production in 2025, with the resumption of the six wells, and followed by the 30 wells in 2035.

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Davao City Water District to conduct P19 M-ground water assessment

DAVAO CITY – The Davao City Water District approved for commissioning of a study to evaluate the ground water of the city, to equp the agency with scientific baseline information on utilizing and recharging the city’s aquifers.

Imelda Magsuci, spokesperson of DCWD, said the agency wanted the study to start early next year to allow it a head start on another separate water extraction project that would tap the river water in the northern hinterland of Tamugan.

The water extraction project would rest extraction of ground waters in the Dumoy district, south of downtown. The Dumoy waters supply the main drinking water need of Davao City, but critics have already voiced concern on the wasteful habits of resident, including the use of drinking water to hose out soil and dirt of household garage, and pathways of houses.

Magsuci said the study would like to know the water balance in the Dumoy area, simulate the ground water condition and the rate an incident of contamination would happen.

The study would cost P19 million and last 18 months,

She said that there were already proponents who indicated their interest to bid.

The DCWD produces almost 280,000 cubic meters per day and a separate project would involve the extraction of the still pristine waters of Tamugan River in the remote northern hinterland of the city. The project would produce a minimum of 280,000 cubic meters per day to meet the increasing demand of potable water.

The project would cost P10 billion and would be expected to be operational by 2017, where the pumping wells in the Dumoy area would be rested for the next eight years.

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