Marikina River edit
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Marikina River edit
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| Marikina River (Ilog Marikina) | |
 Marikina River in Pasig City
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| Country |  Philippines |
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| Regions | National Capital Region, CALABARZON |
| Cities | Marikina City, Quezon City, Pasig City |
| Source | |
| - location | Rodriguez, Rizal, CALABARZON |
| Mouth | Pasig River |
| - location | Pasig City, National Capital Region |
| - elevation | 0 m (0 ft) |
| - coordinates | 14°33′30″N 121°04′05″E / 14.55833°N 121.06806°E |
 Drainage map of the Pasig-Marikina River River system
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The Marikina River (Tagalog: Ilog Marikina) is a main river system in Eastern Metro Manila, Philippines. A river stretching from Rodriguez, Rizal, to Pasig City that connects to Pasig River as major tributary near Napindan Area in Pasig City.
Marikina River used to be an important transport route during Spanish era. However, due to negligence and industrial development, the river has become very polluted. Also, squatters nearby simply dumped their garbage at the river. In the late 1990s because of the dynamic transformation of Marikina City under Mayor Bayani Fernando the river has survived and now, one of the most important treasures in Marikina City.
The Marikina River flows in the center of Marikina Valley because of the mountain ranges of Sierra Madre on the east and Quezon City or Capitol Hills in Quezon City on the west. Marikina River is much known in Marikina City because the city itself maintain its rehabilitation of a river which is a good example in other cities not only in Metro Manila but in the Philippines for reviving neglected rivers and water systems. The river recognized as Hall of Famer for the Cleanest Inland Water in Metro Manila.
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Marikina River is considered to be at the heart of Marikina City. It intersects with Pasig River along the Manggahan Floodway. The Manggahan Floodway connects Pasig River and Marikina River with Laguna de Bay. Its water flows from the upper portion of the Marikina River into the Manggahan Floodway then directly to the Laguna Lake.
It has 7 creeks and waterways connected to it. The river's depth ranges from 3–21 meters and spans from 70–120 meters. It has a total area of nearly 75.2 hectares and is 11 kilometer long. The riverbank has an elevation of 8 meters above sea level at the boundary of San Mateo and Marikina. This slowly goes down at an elevation of 4 meters nearly before the Malanday and Santo Niño boundary. The lowest elevation is along Calumpang which 2 meters above sea level. The river serves as the city’s major drainage system.1 Unfortunately, the water coming from the creeks has many soil particles causing the river to be filled with soil particles coming from residential-industrial land. This has also added to the soil erosion problem of the city.
There are only nine bridges crossing the river. They are as follows: Batasan Bridge Quezon City to San Mateo, Rizal (near Batasang Pambansa, Quezon City), Gil Fernando "formerly called Tumana", Marikina, Marcos (together with LRT-2 from Katipunan Station to Santolan Station), Macapagal Bridge (Marikina City), Manalo, Rosario, Sandoval and Santa Rosa de Lima Bridge (Pasig City)
On 26 September 2009 at about 6:00 pm PST, the 50-mph "Tropical Storm Ketsana" or "Ondoy" hit Metro Manila and dumped one month's rainfall in less than 24 hours, causing the Marikina River system, including the Manggahan Floodway, to burst its banks very rapidly. Along with flooding along other river systems, 80 percent of the National Capital Region became flooded. Also flooded were 25 nearby provinces. In Metro Manila alone, 20 feet of dirty water forced people to evacuate their homes. By the 30th of September at least 450,000 inhabitants had been displaced, with at last 380,000 forced into makeshift shelters. 246 people were reported dead. It is thought that blocked pipes and a poorly maintained sewerage system, along with uncollected domestic waste, were major contributory factors in the speed with which the flood waters were able to engulf the surrounding area. A "State of National Calamity" was declared by President Gloria Arroyo, and a task force was set up to rescue the inhabitants, however the government was forced to admit that resources were in short supply, and called for world assistance.
This is the worst storm on record that Manila has experienced since 1967.
Marikina River is on the verge of an ecological imbalance as a strange species of fish dominates its ecosystem. Prior to the invasion of the Janitor fish the Marikina river used to be full of other species: tilapia, martiniko, ayungin and biya.
Since the late nineties the Marikina River is plagued by infestation of the so called "Janitor fish". There are two species of Janitor fish present in the Philippines; Pterygoplichthys pardalis and Pterygoplichthys disjunctivus found in the Marikina River and Lake Paitan in Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija2.
A scientific study of the species found in five locations in the Laguna de Bay tributary system, amongst them the Marikina River, revealed that the specimen of Janitor fish previously reported as Hypostomus plecostomus actually belong to the genus Pterygoplichthys, family Loricariidae. The collected specimen for this study consisted of two species; Pterygoplichthys disjunctivus and Pterygoplichthys pardalis. Both species were collected from the Marikina River. Only the species disjunctivus was collected from Pasig River3.
The growing fish population has prompted the city government to launch a new program to control their number. The city issued Ordinance 004, series of 2007 to: Ordinance Launching a Janitor Fish Eradication Drive in the City of Marikina, Granting Cash Incentives to Participants Therefore and appropriating Annually the Amount of Fifty Thousand Pesos (P50,000.00) For the Purpose4
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