Zürcher Nachrichten - Burst dike leaves Filipino farmers under water

EUR -
AED 3.834856
AFN 72.981026
ALL 98.491871
AMD 410.574545
ANG 1.873597
AOA 958.441534
ARS 1062.068709
AUD 1.668164
AWG 1.879297
AZN 1.774656
BAM 1.956632
BBD 2.099092
BDT 124.232814
BGN 1.958008
BHD 0.392267
BIF 3073.606664
BMD 1.044054
BND 1.4119
BOB 7.184054
BRL 6.348575
BSD 1.039642
BTN 88.383574
BWP 14.369109
BYN 3.402246
BYR 20463.455505
BZD 2.089788
CAD 1.4984
CDF 2996.434335
CHF 0.932371
CLF 0.037427
CLP 1032.725839
CNY 7.619298
CNH 7.624449
COP 4583.396412
CRC 524.522987
CUC 1.044054
CUP 27.667427
CVE 110.312953
CZK 25.108921
DJF 185.128703
DKK 7.458302
DOP 63.306913
DZD 140.708819
EGP 53.090769
ERN 15.660808
ETB 129.594994
FJD 2.419125
FKP 0.826872
GBP 0.82945
GEL 2.934095
GGP 0.826872
GHS 15.282497
GIP 0.826872
GMD 75.171679
GNF 8981.818386
GTQ 8.010405
GYD 217.502466
HKD 8.11186
HNL 26.390219
HRK 7.4889
HTG 136.00782
HUF 413.977438
IDR 16852.07323
ILS 3.801792
IMP 0.826872
INR 88.729074
IQD 1361.878967
IRR 43941.619435
ISK 145.113457
JEP 0.826872
JMD 162.65915
JOD 0.740338
JPY 163.428363
KES 134.213278
KGS 90.832546
KHR 4177.776073
KMF 486.659583
KPW 939.647883
KRW 1514.838471
KWD 0.321516
KYD 0.866368
KZT 545.98211
LAK 22754.673557
LBP 93096.577585
LKR 305.22976
LRD 188.690217
LSL 19.139837
LTL 3.08282
LVL 0.631537
LYD 5.108172
MAD 10.463148
MDL 19.149141
MGA 4905.085269
MKD 61.561171
MMK 3391.046186
MNT 3547.694854
MOP 8.322738
MRU 41.345577
MUR 49.280896
MVR 16.080872
MWK 1802.251891
MXN 20.95141
MYR 4.682524
MZN 66.718935
NAD 19.139837
NGN 1614.576632
NIO 38.256264
NOK 11.798806
NPR 141.414119
NZD 1.845107
OMR 0.401651
PAB 1.039642
PEN 3.871246
PGK 4.215792
PHP 61.207138
PKR 289.37392
PLN 4.260093
PYG 8106.446244
QAR 3.789911
RON 4.977322
RSD 117.017747
RUB 107.411783
RWF 1449.216096
SAR 3.922094
SBD 8.752883
SCR 14.548185
SDG 628.007273
SEK 11.498155
SGD 1.414228
SHP 0.826872
SLE 23.801848
SLL 21893.290418
SOS 594.152588
SRD 36.678625
STD 21609.806806
SVC 9.096867
SYP 2623.21688
SZL 19.135135
THB 35.777638
TJS 11.373235
TMT 3.664629
TND 3.312708
TOP 2.445276
TRY 36.741769
TTD 7.056
TWD 34.125736
TZS 2521.389855
UAH 43.600836
UGX 3813.621262
USD 1.044054
UYU 46.369713
UZS 13403.698233
VES 53.742914
VND 26555.509733
VUV 123.952164
WST 2.884499
XAF 656.235982
XAG 0.035143
XAU 0.000398
XCD 2.821607
XDR 0.793037
XOF 656.235982
XPF 119.331742
YER 261.404956
ZAR 19.098632
ZMK 9397.736499
ZMW 28.771231
ZWL 336.184914
  • CMSD

    0.0000

    23.56

    0%

  • GSK

    0.1700

    33.6

    +0.51%

  • SCS

    -0.5800

    11.74

    -4.94%

  • BCC

    -0.2600

    122.75

    -0.21%

  • RBGPF

    59.9600

    59.96

    +100%

  • RIO

    -0.0900

    58.64

    -0.15%

  • NGG

    0.8200

    58.5

    +1.4%

  • AZN

    0.9100

    65.35

    +1.39%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0100

    7.27

    -0.14%

  • CMSC

    0.0200

    23.86

    +0.08%

  • BCE

    0.0500

    23.16

    +0.22%

  • RELX

    -0.3100

    45.47

    -0.68%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    8.39

    +0.12%

  • BTI

    0.1131

    36.24

    +0.31%

  • JRI

    0.1100

    12.06

    +0.91%

  • BP

    0.1900

    28.6

    +0.66%

Burst dike leaves Filipino farmers under water
Burst dike leaves Filipino farmers under water / Photo: TED ALJIBE - AFP

Burst dike leaves Filipino farmers under water

Filipino farmer Ferdinand Pascua faces financial ruin after heavy rain brought by Typhoon Man-yi sent torrents of water down a river near his shanty, bursting through an earthen dike and inundating land he has tilled for a decade.

Text size:

Man-yi was a super typhoon when it slammed into the Philippines over the weekend -- the sixth major storm to hit the archipelago nation in the past month.

Pascua's farm in Aliaga municipality, three hours drive north of Manila, was not in Man-yi's path, but the nearby Talavera river brought the storm right to his door on Sunday.

"We heard the water's huge roar and the sound of collapsing earth," Pascua, 38, told AFP on Tuesday as he hauled wet clothes across knee-deep mud in his front yard.

"We were worried and in shock. I took my children to my parents' home and returned to retrieve our stuff."

The Talavera, swollen by heavy rain in the northern mountains of Luzon island where Man-yi crossed, took part of Pascua's shanty and destroyed around 200 hectares (500 acres) of farmland that should have been protected by the dike.

While the typhoon is now far away, officials say the flooding will persist for the next three days as brown river water gushes through a 40-metre (130-foot) gap in the remains of the four-metre tall dike and flows through dozens of houses in Santa Monica village.

"It (typhoon) did not hit us directly. The rain was not heavy. The problem is the rain that fell in Aurora flowed down here," Yolando Santos, the elected village chief, told AFP, referring to the neighouring mountainous province to the east where Man-yi made its second landfall on Sunday.

- Deeper into debt -

While no one was killed or injured when the dike burst, villagers told AFP they worried that the farms will be permanently silted with sand and unfit for cultivation.

Many, like Pascua, had borrowed money from local loan sharks to finance the rice and corn crops that were wiped out, and they will now have to go deeper into debt.

Santos said about 200 hectares of farmland in the villages of Santa Monica and nearby Santa Lucia were flooded.

Corn crops on the other side of the river were also flattened as the waterway doubled in width to 80 metres.

On Tuesday, farmer Eduardo Santos, 53, stood on the edge of the damaged dike about 300 metres from his flooded house and watched the torrent of water go past.

Santos had borrowed 60,000 pesos ($1,020) at five percent interest a month to plant three hectares of rice and two hectares of corn.

He lost it all and now worries if three of his four children still in school will be forced to drop out.

"Getting back up is such a difficult thing. We do not know how to start all over again," Santos said.

"We have no other option but to borrow money because we do not have funds to prepare the land for planting."

Pascua said he was worried about how to find more work now that the farmland had been ruined.

For now, the family could rely on his 39-year-old wife, who works as a babysitter with a Manila family.

"Her pay is low but we are counting on it at this time until I can find a job," Pascua said.

"Water is a formidable adversary."

O.Hofer--NZN