Philippines, Netherlands hold talks on disaster measures

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines and the Netherlands held talks on the proposal for an international coalition for integrated delta management and resilience in relation to disaster risk and reduction (DRR) efforts of the two countries.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman met with Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Minister Lilianne Ploumen on the sidelines of the 3rd United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (3WCDRR) in Sendai, Japan on March 15 and they discussed the Netherlands’ proposal for an international coalition to address disaster risks.

As part of the goal of the WCDRR to develop the Post-2015 Disaster Risk Reduction Framework, the governments of Netherlands, Colombia and Japan are developing the Delta Coalition, an initiative to bring together governments and other stakeholders to focus on delta regions such as the Philippines, which has a number of river deltas with a dense population.

Deltas are a unique area of concern for many countries that are facing unprecedented pressures from population growth and climate change.

Ploumen invited Soliman and members of the Philippine delegation to the forum on building an international coalition for integrated delta management and resilience on March 16 at the Tohoku University in Sendai.

Soliman indicated her interest in the forum in line with the concerns of the Philippines to provide DRR measures for residential areas located on or near river deltas in the provinces.

She also expressed interest on integrated DRR management measures to address hazards in populated deltas such as floods.