MASSIVE flooding in northern Iloilo when typhoon “Ursula” struck on Christmas Day caught many local government units there by surprise. This prompted Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. to call for a review of the province’s geohazard map prepared by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau. The identified hazard areas might have changed already, he explained.
Maybe. The geohazard map identified danger zones – areas vulnerable to flooding and landslide – down to the barangay level.
The governor’s call is reasonable. But the provincial government could do better than that. It can, for example, review its disaster management and preparedness programs with the end in view of having a better plan when dealing with threatening disasters and allot substantial budget to facilitate the same.
Only two months ago we remembered the sixth anniversary of the super typhoon “Yolanda” disaster. Have we learned a lesson or two from that tragedy?
No less than the United Nations warned that “mega disasters” will continuously risk the lives and properties of peoples, especially in some of the world’s biggest cities unless the peoples and their governments heed the threat of climate change.
The Philippines ranked as the 12th “unsafest place on earth” in the Mortality Risk Index released by the United Nations’ International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. It is estimated that between 1970 and 2000, the Philippines incurred an average annual direct damage of P15 billion yearly or equivalent to 0.7 percent of the gross domestic product as a direct consequence of natural disasters. During the same period, an average of 866 lives were lost annually, with typhoons accounting for 65 percent of the deaths. Typhoons alone kill an average of over 500 people every year and about P4 billion are lost due to tropical cyclones.
Preparedness is vital in mitigating the damage of any disasters or calamities. As an archipelago, we are hit by typhoons frequently. We are now feeling the ill-effects of climate change and we should enhance our disaster preparedness programs.
