Confab on community-based flood early warning system held

CATARMAN, Northern Samar, July 5 (PNA) --Representatives of seven towns here have converged here to learn more on community preparedness against flood and other calamities.

The consultative meeting, held at Ibabao Hall, Capitol Building here, was attended by representatives from the municipalities of San Roque, Silvino Lubos, Catubig, Las Navas, Laoang, Pambujan and Catarman, all flood prone areas of the province.

The consultative meeting has given the participants knowledge on community based monitoring on the amount of rainfall and water level of rivers. The participants have information about calamity community based preparedness.

Experts from various government agencies, such as Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) Regional Office 8, National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA), Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Regional Office 8, Department of Science and Technology, served as resource speakers.

PAGASA administrator Dr. Presco Nilo said rainfall and flood gauges should be installed in the said municipalities.

The meeting was part of the Hazards Mapping for Effective Community-Based Disaster Risk Mitigation or the READY Project.

The OCD is the READY Project’s executing agency while the collaborating NDCC agencies are MGB, NAMRIA, PAGASA and Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivocs).

The Collective Strengthening for Community Awareness on Natural Disasters (CSCAND), a subcommittee of the NDCC Preparedness Committee is the project implementor.

Phivocs chairs the CSCAND Technical Working Group while OCD heads the Steering Committee.

Maria Leonila P. Bautista, Phivocs READY team manager, said the project hoped to address the problem of disaster risk management (DRM) at the local level of the country's 27 disaster high-risk provinces, including Northern Samar.

The project is composed of multi-hazard and risk assessment, community-based disaster risk mitigation through development of community-based early warning system and conduct of information, education and communication campaigns and mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into the local development.

Multi-hazard maps (earthquake, tsunami, floods, landslides and volcanic) will be produced for the target areas while community-based early warning systems for sudden-onset events such as flash floods, landslides and tsunami will be also be in in placed.

These include the setting up of rainfall and flood level monitoring, establishment of tsunami hazard signages and conduct of evacuation drills for both hazards.

Meanwhile, provision and training on the use of REDAS, a hazard simulation software, caps the project in each province.

The READY multi-hazard maps are also incorporated in the REDAS software to make it multi-hazard in approach. The READY Project forms a breakthrough because the NDCC agencies have agreed to pool resources and expertise to address the DRM issue in the country.

The funding institutions include the United Nations Development Program and the Australian Agency for International Development. As of May 2009, 17 READY provinces had been worked on in varying levels of completion.