Filipino Floods

 Thousands of residents have fled flooded communities and swollen rivers in the Philippine capital, Manila, and outlying provinces after days of torrential monsoon rains. The northern Philippines has been swamped by days of monsoon rains that flooded low-lying villages and set off minor landslides. Officials say they are struggling to open more emergency shelters.  In the city of Marikina in the capital region, nearly 15,000 residents were evacuated to safety overnight as waters rose alarmingly in a major river.

Marikina mayor, Marcelino Teodoro blamed years of illegal logging in nearby mountains and heavy siltation in the Marikina River for constant flooding in his city.

 Extreme weather events have hit nearly all corners of the globe in recent weeks, bringing floods to China, India and Western Europe and heat waves to North America and Russia's Siberia, highlighting fears about the impact of climate change. The Philippines is hit by about 20 tropical storms a year but a warmer Pacific Ocean will make storms more powerful and bring heavier rain, meteorologists say.

The Philippines is also suffering one of the worst outbreaks of Covid-19 in Asia and has tightened curbs to prevent the spread of the more infectious Delta variant. 
With more than 1.54mn cases and 27,131 deaths, the Philippines has the second-highest number of Covid-19 infections and fatalities in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia. Authorities are struggling to allow social distancing among the displaced residents and prevent evacuation camps from turning into epicentres of Covid-19 infections