LOCAL government units are scrambling to preposition relief goods as “Odette” gathers strength. The weather disturbance strengthened from a severe tropical storm into a typhoon yesterday morning. Good. This is important.
However, we do not build disaster resilience through relief efforts. Instead, we have to lessen the need for disaster relief. Focus should always be on disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, protection of our environment.
In years past, advocating for climate change measures was difficult. It was an abstract term for many until disasters in massive scal, started to happen like super typhoon “Yolanda”. Now, people are listening.
The World Bank reports that the Philippines is one of the most vulnerable countries to extreme weather events. Every year, we experience some 20 typhoons. And beyond the loss of lives, disasters have massive impacts on our economy. It has been reported that economic losses from disasters have increased 18-fold since the 1970s. It is difficult to describe the challenges our nation faces today. Immense challenges would be an understatement.
But it would be fatal to think that the only task at hand is that of providing relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction. Consider a report nearly a decade ago – the 2013 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction, “From Shared Risk to Shared Value: the Business Case for Disaster Risk Reduction”. The Philippines ranked first in terms of economic losses due to disasters as it is estimated to lose more than 10% of its gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), which is the combined annual capital investment of both the public and private sectors, to earthquakes; while more than 1% of GFCF will be lost due to typhoons. Losses to disasters could even exceed the country’s revenues. The Philippines has been experiencing budget deficits partly due to disasters. The report revealed that middle-income countries like the Philippines have high levels of risk because of weaker infrastructure, which affects a nation’s annual average loss to disasters—a factor important for investors.
Not all is lost however. In recent years the Philippines has shown improvements in its disaster risk reduction and management efforts, particularly through increased budget allocations. This strengthens support adaptation measures that help build assets and strengthen the resilience of communities. It helps finance mitigation activities and buttress adaptation measures.
Natural hazards have no bias. It does not choose its victims. Everybody is called to help and contribute on, among others, risk assessments, establishing effective and efficient early warning systems and disaster plans, etc. There will be many more typhoons that will come our way. Let us not be content in disaster relief. Let us strive to diminish the need for such. Let us instead build sustainable and resilient communities.
