Metro Manila Sinking, Expert Says

All of the metropolitan area of Manila, the capital of the Philippines, is sinking, an expert warned on Thursday.

“The entire Metro Manila is sinking. And we said you’ll have to consider that it’s sinking and not slowly, it’s sinking at several centimeters per year,” Fernando Siringan of University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute told a Senate committee hearing, according to the Philippine Star.

Siringan said the sinking is caused in part by “global warming,” which causes the sea level to rise by nearly one centimeter per year.

His comments come after weeks of rains caused by tropical storms drenched Manila, causing floods and other disasters that killed 109 people, AFP reported.

Benito Ramos, the head of the country’s civil defense department, said that more floods could affect the Cagayan river basin, where two million people live.

“The storm is gone but we’re still on red alert. In 10 hours we’d know how much water would descend onto the Cagayan river,” Ramos told the news agency.

Francis Tolentino, chair of the Metro Manila Development Authority, said Thursday that “Metro Manila can never be flood resistant,” adding that parts of the region are below sea level, reported ABS-CBN News.

“But Metro Manila can be flood resilient,” he said, elaborating that residents in some parts of the metropolitan area have figured out ways to prepare for and survive floods.

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