BY JOHNNY NOVERA
WE read of the groundbreaking ceremony held recently in Barangay Tagbac Sur in Oton, Iloilo for the proposed site of a provincial evacuation center with a P10-million budget from the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council under the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Well, building an evacuation center is a great idea but we wonder why it will be constructed in one location when it is intended to serve all the municipalities in the province.
It will be hard for residents of other municipalities to have access to the center, especially in times of emergency.
Three problems usually crop up during typhoons or other natural calamities:
1. When a strong typhoon, flood or other disasters occur, the roads become impassable as it happened, for example, when typhoon “Frank” hit Iloilo in 2008. How can people then coming from other barangays or towns go to the evacuation center in Barangay Tagbac Sur in that situation? Even when the water subsides, the roads are usually blocked by uprooted trees and electric posts with broken lines;
2. If the evacuation center is far, calamity victims, when asked to move out of their homes for safety from impending danger, might refuse to leave as they are afraid to lose their belongings without anyone left in their houses; and
3. There is also the matter of maintenance cost of a big facility like the evacuation center to be put up, plus the service of a regular staff to run it even if there is no typhoon or calamities and evacuees.
In the typhoons and floods or other calamities that we experienced, our school houses became the evacuation center for the refugees of the community.
We recommend that DSWD reconsider its plan to construct the evacuation center in one location in Barangay Tagbac Sur, Oton, but allocate the P10 million to different schools in the barangays in Iloilo province with a budget of P100,000 per school.
With our 42 municipalities in Iloilo province, we can designate two to three schools in each town as evacuation center so it will be nearer for the people to take refuge when a natural calamity occurs.
The P100,000 proposed budget from DSWD can then be used to construct at least two more toilets with baths in the schools for use of evacuees taking shelter there during calamities, a rainwater catch basin for water storage, at least three rolls of bamboo mats (amakan) to be used by the evacuees, cooking pots, flashlights with batteries, candles, a sack of charcoal for fuel in cooking, emergency supply of rice that can sustain evacuees for two or three days during typhoon or flood emergencies. The evacuation center can be managed by the principal of the school who will also handle the budget.
Many schools have roofed basketball courts or gyms (called Garinasiums in the 1st District of Iloilo) which can serve as temporary quarters for evacuees.
One point we finally would like to stress is that constructing as many evacuation centers as possible in various towns can save more lives than build a single provincial facility in one location. (For comments or reactions, please e-mail to jnoveracompany@yahoo.com)/PN
