Swollen Marikina river; caused by claiming accretion along river banks, reclamation ? When shall we learn flood control?

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We get alarmed by this unusually high flood water level.  And yet we continue unabatedly, reclamation projects or residents along the river banks getting titles to accretion (deposition of sediments along river banks, sometimes illegally.  And this has been tolerated

Rivers are in need of  dredging because channels have become narrow because of siltation from erosion, lack of trees to stop water flow, development.   LGUs also construct along river banks further narrowing river channels.   

We should not interfere with the rivers.   Sometimes we backfill creeks and construct on the backfill.  When floods come, nature reclaims the creek.

Incessant rain from Habagat causes flooding in QC, Marikina, EDSA, Pampanga and Pangasinan

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Rizal Philippines
August 14, 2016

TV news last night were filled of videos of areas being hit by floods:   QC Del Monte River Banks, Marikina River banks, Calasiao and Sta Barbara in Pangasinan,  San Fernando Pampanga, and areas along Tullahan river (due to La Mesa Dam water nearing critical level  -  this would flood Valenzuela, Navotas, Malabon, and Caloocan City)  Some comments are worth making:

The water level at Marikina river has reached and will breach the critical level

1.  While the flooding is from nature, the other part comes from:    inadequate flood control (despite billions having spent for them)

2.  Those who live near the river banks must be permanently evacuated.  They live in river banks and the danger will always be there when the rivers swell  (true for Marikina and del Monte and elsewhere)

3.  The rivers must be dredged and accretion titles revoked.  This post noted that in Pasig and Marikina, the LGU developed the accredtion (the silt that were deposited on the river banks) thus narrowing the rivers and lessening the carrying capacity of the Pasig River

Man.s greed is to be blamed for this flooding.  This is true for flooding in Cainta and  Marikina and Pasig.   We all know the cause and yet we do not act.  In Pasig near the Soldiers village, scavengers occupied the area near the creek.  We posted that picture several years ago.  No one has dared take action on this.  You cant see the bridge structure anymore

Do narrow creeks and rivers affect your daily lives? Are they relevant to you/

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Angono, Rizal  Philippines | October 4, 2014

   This portion of Marikina river near Sandoval bridge has about 20 meters of accretion at this side;  it ripe for being a tumana, or titling.  The river at this portion may be 30 to 40 meters wide only.   No wonder there is plenty of flooding.  The Marikina river used to be 100 meters wide or even more.  It was like a sea before.

Most probably you wont.  Let the narrow rivers and creeks take care of themselves.

But they wont take care of themselves:

Is claiming of accretion a common practice at Marikina river? (passing through Pasig City)

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Rizal Philippines    |  September 30, 2014

                What is this backhoe doing?  Removing the accretion or fixing this?.  The river at this portion before the Rosario bridge has become narrower.

Reclaiming  the accretion at Marikina River?
From what I remember, Pasig river was a wide and deep and wide river.  It claimed a lot of lives from drowning. It could be at least 100 meters wide and more than 10 meters deep.  However this post recent photo essay suggests that it could be 50 or even 30 meters wide, and heavily silted.  No wonder, there is rapid flooding of its banks.  what happened to the rest of the river?

What is accretion and how does it cause more flooding

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Report from Nauticapedia



We see lakes and decreasing in area, as more land is created from the soil washed from the upland.  Riverbanks too become wider and upland owners gain ownership (they can have the added land titled.  In the process, the waterway gets narrower, and common sense dictates that less volume of water can pass through hence this is flooding.

In my town, In Cainta, Pasig, in Marikina, I know for a fact, that accretions in rivers has been a cause of flooding.   Laguna lakes area has likewise been decreased because of accretion and reclamation projects.  The volume of the lake is considereably reduced.