DOST: Project NOAH not meant to last forever

MANILA, Philippines — Project NOAH (Nationwide Operation Assessment of Hazards), the government's rain and flood forecasting system, has completed its deliverables as its operations come to an end, the Department of Science and Technology said.

The project's technologies will be turned over to the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA).

In a tweet last Sunday, Project NOAH executive director Mahar Lagmay said that the government has been trying to shut down the project long before the Duterte administration.

"[Two] years ago pa kami pinapatay. Long before Duterte's term. Iyong dating pumapatay ay sila pa rin iyon," Lagmay said.

About 200 scientists and employees will lose their jobs as DOST's Project NOAH faces shut down, Lagmay said in a press briefing on Tuesday.

'Not lack of funds'

The DOST, however, clarified that the project is not being shut down due to lack of funds.

"The statement of no funds is for the current project which really has a project end date. It has been stated clearly that new project proposals are welcome if there is new study to be made," Science and Technology Secretary Fortunato Dela Peña said in a statement.

Dela Peña noted that Project NOAH started in 2011 and its component projects were completed in 2015. It was extended until 2016 to cover additional deliverables.

The project was further extended until the end of February 2017 and part of the condition was the transfer of technologies for use in relevant government agencies.

"In this project, PAGASA is the principal government agency that would take over the operations aspect of the delivered outputs/technologies," the secretary said.

The secretary added that the adoption by PAGASA ensures that Project NOAH's tools will be institutionalized.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol said that he will ask President Rodrigo Duterte to allow the Department of Agriculture to take over Project NOAH.

"The Department of Agriculture needs Project NOAH and I will do everything to save it," Piñol said in a statement.

Piñol noted that shutting down the monitoring program would be a "disaster especially now that the country experiences one flooding after another." 

Project NOAH was launched during the administration of former President Benigno Aquino III who said that its rain and flood forecasting system would be the "ark" that Filipinos could use during the rainy season.

The project seeks to "provide high-resolution flood hazard maps and install 600 automated rain gauges and 400 water level measuring stations for 18 major river basins," according to its website.