THE Marikina City government downgraded the alert status of the Marikina River on Monday morning after its water level went down to the 17-meter mark.

On Sunday, the water level breached 18 meters prompting authorities to raise the third alarm and implement a forced evacuation.

The water level peaked at 18.4 meters at 2:00 a.m. Monday.

Earlier, Marikina City Mayor Marcelino “Marcy” Teodoro already deployed disaster and rescue personnel to respond to the needs of residents.

The local government initially opened 42 evacuation centers.

Teodoro said 5,000 families, or around 21,000 individuals, have evacuated their homes to escape the threat of rising water levels along the Marikina River.

As of Monday morning, the mayor said that around 2,000 individuals remained in evacuation centers across the city.

During the storm, Mayor Marcy was on the ground checking the situation in various evacuation centers across the city to ensure the safety and welfare of residents.

He explained that every evacuation center has a designated number of occupants. Evacuees that cannot be catered to will be endorsed to other centers with available space.

This is to ensure that the proper health and safety protocols will be observed and congestion will be prevented, he said.

Mayor Marcy noted that the dredging operation conducted by the city along the Marikina River has helped in improving the water-carrying capacity of the river and preventing the water from inundating nearby communities.

“Due to the dredging that we did with Marikina River, nag-improve ‘yung water carrying capacity nito. Kaya nakita natin the water current is faster. We were able to deepen and widen the river channel,” he said.

Mayor Marcy also emphasized that the local government has improved the city’s drainage outfall system to expand its capacity.

“Kaya nakita natin, ‘yung mga binaha ngayon, ‘yung mga laylayan na lang. At ‘yung pagbaha, hindi katulad ng naranasang pagbaha, na halos lagpas ng unang palapag ng mga kabahayan o kaya ‘yung ibang mga bahay ay lubog,” he said.

“Ang effect ng climate change talaga ang nararamdaman natin sa ngayon. ‘Yung pag-ulan sa itaas na bahagi ng kabundukan ng Marikina ay nararamdaman natin after few hours dito sa baba sa Marikina – Marikina being a downstream river,” he added.