The Chico River (), is a river system in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

in the island of

Luzon Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...

, encompassing the regions of

Cordillera A cordillera is a chain or network of mountain ranges, such as those in the west coast of the Americas. The term is borrowed from Spanish, where the word comes from , a diminutive of ('rope'). The term is most commonly used in physical geogra ...

and

Cagayan Valley Cagayan Valley (; ), designated as Region II, is an Regions of the Philippines, administrative region in the Philippines. Located in the northeastern section of Luzon, it is composed of five Provinces of the Philippines, Philippine provinces: ...

. It is the longest

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of the

Cagayan River The Cagayan River, also known as the Río Grande de Cagayán, is the longest river and the largest river by discharge volume of water in the Philippines. It has a total length of approximately and a drainage basin covering . It is located in ...

with a total length of . The most extensive river in the Cordillera region, it covers the provinces of

Mountain Province Mountain Province (; ; ; ; ; ) is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Bontoc while Bauko is the largest municipality. Mountain Province was formerly referred to as Mountain ...

, Kalinga and

Cagayan Cagayan ( ), officially the Province of Cagayan (; ; ; isnag language, Isnag: ''Provinsia nga Cagayan''; ivatan language, Ivatan: ''Provinsiya nu Cagayan''; ; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Cag ...

. It is referred to as a "river of life" for the Kalinga people who live on its banks, and is well known among development workers because of the Chico River Dam Project, an electric power generation project which local residents resisted for three decades before it was finally shelved in the 1980s - a landmark case study concerning ancestral domain issues in the Philippines.

Geography

Philippine Island - Bontoc - NARA - 68155884

The Chico River, has a total length of , making it the longest

of the

, itself the largest river in the Philippines. For centuries it has been central to farming, trading, livelihoods, and daily life, whether as a benefit or hindrance. It provided a source of water for washing and irrigation, and habitat for

carabao Carabaos () are a genetically distinct population of swamp-type water buffaloes ('' Bubalus bubalis kerabau'') from the Philippines.FAO 2013''Philippine Carabao/Philippines''In: Domestic Animal Diversity Information System. Food and Agriculture ...

who had to be led to a watering hole daily. At times it might be an obstacle to settlements on the other side of the river, but until the last century this was an opportunity for enterprising Filipinos who would provide ferry transport. Now, bridges suitable for vehicles have been built. The danger of flooding was less frequent due to being at a higher elevation than the bigger, flood-prone Cagayan into which it feeds.

Source and course

The highest

headwater The headwater of a river or stream is the geographical point of its beginning, specifically where surface runoff water begins to accumulate into a flowing channel of water. A river or stream into which one or many tributary rivers or streams flo ...

s begin along the slopes of

Mount Data Mount Data is a mountain located in the Cordillera Central mountain range rising to a height of in the north of Luzon Island, Philippines. It is about north of Baguio on the borders of the provinces of Benguet and Mountain Province along the ...

in the Cordillera mountains at Bauko, Mountain Province. It then flows northeastward through and next to cities and municipalities including

Bontoc Bontoc may refer to: * Bontoc, Mountain Province, Philippines * Bontoc, Southern Leyte, Philippines * Bontoc people, an ethnic group from Central Luzon, Philippines * Bontoc language, spoken by the Bontoc people {{disambig, geo Language and ...

, Sabangan, Sadanga,

Tinglayan Tinglayan, officially the Municipality of Tinglayan is a municipality of the Philippines, municipality in the Philippine Province, province of Kalinga (province), Kalinga, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 13,148 ...

, Lubuagan, Tabuk, Pinukpuk, Tuao,

Piat The Projector, Infantry, Anti Tank (PIAT) Mk I was a British man-portable anti-tank weapon developed during the Second World War. The PIAT was designed in 1942 in response to the British Army's need for a more effective infantry anti-tank weapo ...

, Rizal, finally arriving at Santo Niño, where it merges with the

. Its tributaries are the Bunog River to the south, The Tanudan and Biga Rivers to the east, The Mabaca and Saltan Rivers to the North, and the Pasil River further downstream.

References

External links

* {{Commons category-inline Rivers of the Philippines Landforms of Mountain Province Landforms of Kalinga (province) Landforms of Cagayan