Baguio eyes early preparations for La Niña

BAGUIO CITY — Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong called for early preparations for the La Niña phenomenon expected to come on the heels of the drought suffered by residents mostly last month.

“With the experience that we are having with El Niño where we are now into our seventh month of drought, weather experts fear a possible rebound through the coming La Niña which would mean strong typhoons and abnormally high rainfall and so we have to prepare this early to avoid casualties and severe damage to properties,” Magalong said.

The Baguio City government is preparing through its programs under the “Making Cities Resilient (MCR) 2030” program where the city aims to become a resilient city by 2026 in face of the looming impact of climate change,  the city mayor said.

Infrastructure preparations are up with rehabilitation and clean-up of drainage and water ways and slope protection fixtures.

Barangays are also being prepared through continued capacity building and information education and communication programs.

Barangay officials recently underwent a series of seminars on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation to prepare their barangay response teams conducted by the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office under engineer Charles Bryan Carame.

The mayor said that emergency response will be fortified with the introduction of the “orange bag” project where barangays will be required to keep ready emergency tools in attending to emergency situations especially during calamities.

“The bags should contain all the equipment necessary in responding to different life-threatening situations so that they are prepared at all times to rescue and save lives,” the mayor said.