RAFI Fora Informs Public to Better Prepare for El Niño, New Disasters

Concluding its four-part Understanding Choices Forum series on the “new normal,” the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) held on July 15 two fora on the coming El Niño phenomenon and on disaster risk assessment to help the leaders and the public better prepare.

The twin events were held at the Eduardo Aboitiz Plenary Hall of the RAFI-Eduardo Aboitiz Development Studies Center, 35 Lopez Jaena St. Cebu City starting at 9 a.m. last July 15, Tuesday.

The first session “El Niño, are we ready for you?” was organized in response to the predicted El Niño phenomenon that will affect our country. Ms Edna Juanillo, OIC of the Climatology and Agrometeorology Division of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), presented the current status of El Niño to give the public a heads up on how to tackle the problem.

It can be recalled that in 1997, the country experienced the worst El Niño on record, when it was estimated to have caused three billion pesos in damage to the agriculture sector.

This year, El Niño is seen to cause below-average rainfall for the Philippines until the first quarter of next year, leading to soil degradation and adversely affecting harvest yields and food supplies, and shortage of domestic water supply leading to reduction of water allocation.

It is seen that with limited food and water supply, public health would ultimately be affected, leading to increase in malnutrition, the spread of water-borne diseases, and in worst cases, famine.

PAGASA expects El Niño to occur this month, with a three to four month lag before its impact is fully felt.

With the short timeframe for preparation and the serious effects foreseen, Juanillo taught how the people can be ready for this phenomenon. She elaborated on what El Niño was all about for everyone to better understand its possible effects and eliminate the common misconceptions about the phenomenon.

To mitigate El Niño’s effects, Juanillo presented a framework of action and contingency measures to ensure better preparation, resilience, and adaptation.

It was seen during the forum that that there is a need to formulate a strategic plan and framework of action to mitigate El Niño’s adverse impact on various sectors of society. It was recommended that a consolidated effort among stakeholders from the private and public sectors and from key leaders to ordinary citizens must be done.

At 2 p.m., Dr Renato Solidum of the Philippine Volcanology and Seizmology (PHIVOLCS) bannered the final portion of the Understanding Choices Forum series entitled “Assessing Risks.”

The forum started with a discussion on the risks of Cebu in relation to climate change, as basis for planning a more adaptive and resilient community.

It was followed by the presentation of strategies and new technologies in hazard, risk, and impact assessments as basis for disaster preparedness, mitigation, and response.

Solidum mentioned the need to have an updated database on the hazards in every community for the purpose of coming up with appropriate disaster risk reduction strategies and mitigating measures.

To recall, RAFI organized the “new normal: forum series in response to the 7.2 magnitude earthquake last October 15 and Super Typhoon Yolanda in November 8 that caused severe damage in many parts of the country, especially Central Visayas, aside from the thousands of lives lost.

Contributed Photo