A Wild Fickle River - the Aklan
by D. I. Ilio Sr.

Part II

The mighty Aklan River with the majestic mountains from where it originates in the background.

The case of the towns of Banga and Malinao in Aklan is a very interesting example of how the waywardness of a swift river had dictated the location of the poblacion of these municipal communities, and even at the present time, a continual threat to the safety of the property, habitation of the people living in the immediate vicinity of the riverbanks exists.

Firstly, here is a description of the physiography of the main Aklan valley from the most upstream source of the Aklan torrent to where it now debouches into the Sibuyan Sea at Buswang in Kalibo.

The Aklan begins from the north slope of Mount Baloy which is at the boundary of Iloilo, Capiz and Antique provinces. It snakes along canyons following the Korkoran range passing such ancient settlements of Loctuga and Manika and is joined by the Pampango sgtream before reaching Guadalupe barrio. From Guadalupe, the obvious direction which the river should pursue to reach the sea is through Calamcan area (which is marshy and as its name suggests is the abode of mosquitoes) to Sibaliw and then direct to the swamps of Balete and Tinagong Dagat.

But by quirk of nature, the river executes an "S-curve" right at the Libacao town location. The north-south Pinonoy-Janlud ridge was breached geological ages ago and the Aklan did a transbasin flow then pursued a northward course on to the sea.

Actually, the new dcourse lies along a fault line tha tparallels the general axis of the series of peaks along the Aklan-Antique boundary. To the east, the Pinonoy-Janlud ridge stretches northward widening into the Agbanawan plateau which ends at the foot of the Manduyog Hill. The river bed of the Aklan during normal flow is narrow, just about thirty meters wide. But the width of the alluvial plain where the flood water overflows during flood stages increases from Sigcay and Rosario down to the coast.

The longitudinal gradient or slope of the river bottom is considerably steep, thus the speed of the flow specially at flood stages is very swift with great energy to scour its bed and erode its banks.

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