The shear line affected more than 600,000 people in Davao Region, according to an official from the Office of Civil Defense-Davao Region.
During the Kapehan sa Dabaw session on Monday morning, January 22, 2024, Ednar Dayanghirang, the regional director of OCD-Davao, revealed the unprecedented damage and extent of the shear line, highlighting the need to solve landslides and floods in the area.
"The magnitude of the shear line or the flooding, the rains, is unprecedented. First-time nga [that] almost 600,000 people have been affected," he told reporters.
He urged careful analysis of why such calamities occur and how communities may recover.
According to OCD-Davao's progress report No. 6 on the effects of the shear line, 92,652 of the 606,483 affected individuals were from Davao de Oro, 349,589 from Davao del Norte, 5,560 from Davao Occidental, 149,811 from Davao Oriental, 98 from Davao del Sur, and 8,773 from Davao City.
According to Dayanghirang, the agriculture sector suffered about P50 million in damages, while infrastructure sustained approximately P25 million in damages.
He stated that flooding causes less damage to infrastructure than it does to crops.
Flooding had a significant impact on agriculture in Davao del Norte, while landslides hampered operations in Davao de Oro.
The shear line affected 104 road sections and 19 bridges, leaving 37 highways and 14 bridges impassable in the region.
Davao Oriental and Davao de Oro reported 161 damaged houses.
OCD-Davao donated around P49,576,273.1 in aid, which included medications, medicine, family food packs, family kits, hygiene kits, modular tents, sleeping bags, and vaccines.
OCD-Davao intends to convene a regional flooding discourse with all stakeholders in the Davao Region.
Dayanghirang is in talks with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to realign projects with disaster avoidance measures, emphasizing the importance of collaboration rather than criticizing one another.
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