PHL Increases Disaster Risk Reduction Efforts

(PNA) — The government has further pushed its bid for better protection of life, limb and property nationwide, increasingly undertaking initiatives on building communities’ resilience to natural hazards amid climate change.

Among such initiatives are mapping geohazards and disseminating information on these, simplifying weather forecasts and helping local government units (LGUs) develop disaster risk reduction (DRR) capacities.

Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Ramon Paje raised urgency for buildingresilience, noting the Philippines is at risk for geological hazards.

“Climate change is no longer an impending threat — it’s real, happening and already the new normal,” he said.

The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) said disaster is a “serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts which exceed ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.”

“Disaster risk is the potential disaster losses, in lives, health status, livelihoods, assets and services, which could occur to a particular community or a society over some specified future time period,” UNISDR also said.

DRR is “the concept and practice of reducing disaster risks through systematic efforts to analyze and manage causal factors of disasters, including through reduced exposure to hazards, lessened vulnerability of people and property, wise management of land and the environmentand improved preparedness for adverse events,” UNISDR added.

The environment department’s Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) continues its 1:10,000 meters geohazard mapping for the country’s 1,634 cities and municipalities, building on its previous work covering similar maps at the smaller 1:50,000 meters scale.

Such maps identify areas prone to water-induced landslides and flooding.

According to Paje, MGB undertook the mapping activity so this agency can provide LGUs with information on both hazards in respective areas of jurisdiction.

“The maps are also tools for preparing LGUs’ DRRM plans,” he said.

MGB supervising geologist Tony Apostol said the agency already totally mapped out some 97 percent of the target cities and municipalities nationwide.

“We completed data generation except in some areas where peace and order is a problem,” he said.

He noted MGB also already finalized about 90 percent of the required maps.

The final maps are ready for viewing and printing, he said.

State-run Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) also continues helping build resilience to disasters in the country.

In May this year, Phivolcs presented to the public the Valley Fault System (VFS) Atlas.

Phivolcs said the atlas features large-scale maps showing — in detail — areas traversed by VFS, an active fault system in the Greater Metro Manila Area.

According to Phivolcs Director Dr. Renato Solidum, the atlas is a handy guide which everyone must refer to before building their houses and other structures to ensure sites for these aren’t traversed by VFS.

“Key to people’s awareness and preparedness for earthquakes, appropriate land use, contingency planning for disaster response and design of houses, buildings and infrastructures is the location of active faults,” he said.

He noted the atlas also serves as reference material for local mitigation and response action aimed at enhancing communities’ safety and resilience to “strong” earthquakes.

Comprising VFS are the 10-kilometer long East Valley Fault segment in Rizal province and the 100-kilometer long West Valley Fault (WVF) segment that traverses various cities and towns of Rizal, Metro Manila as well as Bulacan, Cavite and Laguna provinces.

WVF can generate a destructive and deadly magnitude 7.2 earthquake, warned Phivolcs.

Phivolcs also facilitated in April 2015, for faculty and staff of Philippine Science High School (PSHS), a training workshop covering disaster risk reduction.

Government recognizes PSHS as an “important ground” for disaster risk reduction education.

Earlier this year, Phivolcs reported joining the Exercise Pacific Wave 2015 (PacWave15) which sought to test the new Operational Pacific Tsunami Warning Center Enhanced Products of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Service.

“It simulated Pacific countries, of which the Philippines is a member, receiving tsunami information with earthquake parameters, forecast tsunami height and arrival time,” noted Phivolcs.

The government’s weather agency Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) also continued exerting efforts on making its forecasts and other information easier for people to understand.

PAGASA undertook with partners various measures for achieving such goal, noting disseminating its weather and climate information in layman’s language is key to protecting life, limb and property.

“We hope to further pursue cooperation with stakeholders concerned to help reduce communities’ vulnerability to hazards,” said PAGASA Acting Administrator Dr. Vicente Malano.

During PAGASA’s 150th anniversary celebration this year, the agency introduced its storm surge warning signals in a simplified format for people’s reference.

PAGASA also came up with simplified presentations of its updated TC warning system and modified public storm warning system.

In April this year, PAGASA released its weather information packet for the public to help people better understand this agency’s technical information so they can better prepare for anticipated weather- and climate-related developments accordingly.

Earlier, PAGASA and the government’s language authority Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) partnered on translating the former’s weather forecasting jargon into easy-to-understand terminology.

KWF said the work is in its final stage.

The Climate Change Commission (CCC) likewise spearheaded DRR-oriented capacity-building activities for LGUs.

CCC reported training in June this year community leaders from National Housing Authority’s resettlement area in Southville 7, Calauan, Laguna province.

The training covered climate change adaptation and DRR, said CCC.

Such activity introduced them to climate change and its impacts on their resettlement site.

Among those impacts are flooding, drought and rain-induced landslides there, CCC noted.

CCC also turned over to typhoon-prone Batanes province this year resource maps this agency produced with support from USAID (United States Agency for International Development).

Those maps were generated using General Information System technology and show data on soil, land use, land cover, elevation, slope and existing natural resource in Batanes’ Basco, Mahatao, Ivana, Uyugan, Sabtang and Itbayat municipalities, noted CCC.

According to CCC Vice-Chairperson Lucille Sering, such data can be used as basis for local planning and programming that emphasize climate change adaptation and mitigation.

“The days are gone when we used to do our local planning with the ‘business-as-usual’ attitude. With these maps, LGUs can now make science-based decisions,” she said.

She assured of CCC’s technical assistance to Batanes LGUs on preparing project proposals for accessing climate-related financing under government’s People’s Survival Fund.

Batanes is among pilot sites CCC identified for its economically resilient and ecologically stable towns or Ecotown initiative.

Sering said ecotown localizes implementation of the government’s National Climate Change Action Plan.

In cooperation with German aid agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, CCC organized in February 2015 the three-day institutional capacity-building training-workshop on producing sectoral and national climate change mitigation baselines.

The activity supports government’s goal of strengthening its capacities in enhancing national climate reporting process to help achieve sustainable development targets, noted CCC.

Such strengthening also aims to provide a clear basis forgovernment agencies’ mainstreaming of climate-relevant programs, CCC said.

Sering noted the Philippines and Germany have been working together on projects dealing with climate change adaptation and mitigation.

“Those projects were designed to build resilience of local communities, attain sustainable development, increase awareness, skills and capacity development for climate protection and adaptation, enhance employment opportunities and investments in renewable energies,” she said.

She added the projects became possible with support from the International Climate Initiative of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety. (PNA) SCS/CJT/MEC