PAGADIAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 18, 2014) – A damaged concrete bridge linking Lanao del Norte to Western Mindanao is hampering the flow of trade in the region and repair could take weeks, probably months before a new bridge is erected.
A huge part of the bridge in the village of Napo in Linamon town was broken due to continuous rains and all land travels are impossible. Travellers now have to walk through a muddy and rough terrain before they can take a boat that would bring them to the other side of the village.
Cargoes from provincial buses were either returned to their owners or carried by laborers down to the river and transferred to boats that would also bring them to the other side of the village where they are loaded to buses.
“It was really difficult now because the bridge is broken. There is no way to cross the bridge, but through the river down below where a fleet of small wooden boats now operate. We still don’t know how long this would be over,” one security guard at the passenger terminal of Rural Transit Mindanao in Zamboanga City told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
Traders are now forced to use courier firms to send cargoes from Cagayan de Oro City to Zamboanga City.
The Department of Public Works and Highways said it is already working on the damage bridge. Other bridges in Mindanao were also damaged by the rains. (Mindanao Examiner)
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