Dams, flooding and power (tags)
Not long after Typhoon Ondoy inundated the metropolis with flood waters, Typhoon Pepeng reversed course to hover around Western Luzon and drop more than 600mm of rain in the area. This time, it was the Cordillera region and Pangasinan that were under distress. More than 40 landslides occurred in the Cordilleras triggered by the massive rain which resulted in as many as 250 deaths. Local groups attributed the area’s increased vulnerability to landslides to the long-term large-scale mining activities especially in Itogon and Mankayan in Benguet province. We remember the Colalo landslide that happened in 1999 in Mankayan which AGHAM visited with the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA) and environmental groups. And only three months ago, geologists from AGHAM and the Center for Environmental Concerns conducted an inspection of land subsidence in the same area.