Saying quarrying may be one of the cause of floods in Metro Manila’s Marikina City, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu on Monday ordered to stop its operations in Rizal province.
Undersecretary Ana Teh of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources instructed Mines and Geosciences Bureau regional director Samuel Paragas to coordinate with Environmental Management Bureau regional director Noemi Paranada and EMB engineer-director Metodio Turbella to issue a joint stoppage order on the quarrying and crushing of plants in Rizal’s San Mateo and Rodriguez,
She said the DENR will conduct an investigation on the possible role of quarrying in the flooding in Marikina, a low-lying area prone to severe flooding.
“We will [have to] suspend the operations of quarrying in those areas,” Secretary Roy Cimatu said.
“We will be going to undertake dredging to deepen and widen the bottom of the waterways so we could prevent floodings,” he added.
He also called on the residents in those areas to plant bamboo in the riverbanks.
San Mateo was placed under state of calamity after heavy monsoon rains severely flooded the province.
Local officials of Rodriguez have yet to declare a state of calamity.
Despite the exit of tropical storm “Karding” from the Philippine Area of Responsibility, it still enhanced the southwest monsoon of hanging habagat to bring torrential rains and cause intense flooding in several areas of Metro Manila and Rizal.
According to Teh, Special Assistant to the President Secretary Bong Go, in his visit to Marikina City, promised to meet with Cimatu to know the main cause of the floods in the provinces of Rizal, including Taytay.
He gave those affected by the inundation of the government’s support to help them. Go, meanwhile, assured the flood victims that the Duterte administration’s sympathy is with them and the government will extend assistance to them.