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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
/ | |
A 300-year-old settlement resurfaces as severe drought dries up a dam | |
in the Philippines | |
By Emily Blumenthal and Monica Garrett, CNN | |
Updated: | |
11:43 AM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
A nearly 300-year-old settlement once submerged beneath a major dam in | |
the Philippines has reemerged as sweltering heat and drought dry up the | |
reservoir. | |
Structures, including part of a church, tombstones and a municipal hall | |
marker, reappeared in the middle of Pantabangan Dam in Nueva Ecija | |
province in March after months of almost no rain, Marlon Paladin, a | |
supervising engineer for the National Irrigation Administration, told | |
AFP. | |
The area was deliberately flooded in the 1970s in the dam’s | |
construction. But a drought currently affecting about half of the | |
country’s provinces has pushed the dam’s water levels down, | |
according to AFP. | |
from the Philippine government’s weather agency, PAGASA, show those | |
levels on April 30 were nearly 50 meters (160 feet) lower than normal. | |
Paladin told AFP that this is the sixth time the settlement has | |
resurfaced since the creation of the reservoir, but “this is the | |
longest time [it was visible] based on my experience.” | |
When water levels drop, the ruins become a popular tourist attraction, | |
according to AFP. | |
Like much of Southeast Asia, the Philippines has for the past several | |
weeks been hit by , leading schools to suspend classes after | |
temperatures hit 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit). | |
Although April and May are normally the hottest months in the | |
Philippines, with temperatures averaging in the mid-30s (high 80s to | |
mid 90s Fahrenheit), much of the country has seen even hotter | |
temperatures. | |
In the past five days, the heat index in some areas has exceeded 40 | |
degrees (104 degrees Fahrenheit), show. Heat index is a calculation of | |
what the human body feels the temperature is like. It takes into | |
account the actual temperature and humidity, which affects the body’s | |
ability to cool itself. | |
The town of Muñoz near the dam has seen heat index over 41 degrees | |
(106 degrees Fahrenheit) the last five days. On Sunday the temperature | |
felt like 47 degrees (117 degrees Fahrenheit) because of other | |
contributing factors. As of the end of March, drought covered much of | |
northern and central Luzon, including Nueva Ecija province where the | |
dam is located, according to . | |
April has remained dry across the country, with portions of central and | |
southern Luzon seeing they should receive at this time, according to | |
the . | |
This year, the El Niño climate pattern has exacerbated those | |
conditions, according to AFP. This natural fluctuation comes on top of | |
planetary warming caused by human-driven climate change. | |
In recent years, temperatures in the region — one of the most | |
vulnerable in the world to the effects of climate change — have | |
climbed to unprecedented heights, leaving hundreds of millions | |
suffering in unforgiving heat and humidity, climatologist Maximiliano | |
Herrera told CNN. | |
Last spring, several countries in Southeast Asia experienced | |
record-breaking heat well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. | |
A 2023 report from the described that heatwave as a once-in-200-years | |
event that would have been “virtually impossible to have occurred | |
without climate change.” | |
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