Disaster mitigation as economic boosts

Cyclones and droughts are predictable. Some two-dozen typhoons strike the country each year, which is why they conveniently are named alphabetically from the 26 letters. Droughts and excessive rains can be forecast two years ahead, from Pacific oceanographic studies of El Niño and La Niña patterns. Foreseeable as well from scientific monitoring are algal red tides that poison shellfish. For economist Benjamin Diokno, government must factor such expected weather and natural upsurges in economic planning.

More than that, disasters are preventable. Floods; mud and rockslides; fires can be avoided through engineering and regulation. Pinpointing earthquake, tsunami and volcanic geo-hazards can lessen loss of lives and property. A former budget minister, Diokno says disasters need not blunt economic growth targets, if only the government averts them.

But Diokno has a bigger proposal: treat disaster mitigation as economic boosters. Put another way, he says, government must undertake projects to allay disaster — at the same time employing people and purchasing goods. That way the money goes around, and the triplet maladies of unemployment-poverty-hunger can be brought down.

Diokno suggests five works that national and local governments can jointly take on:

• Build permanent evacuation centers. He says officials should stop disturbing classes by making schoolhouses serve such purpose.

• Relocate dwellers out of geo-hazard sites. The housing starts can spur mini-booms. A hundred lives need not have been lost in landslides in Pantukan, Compostela Valley, and a thousand from river surge in Cagayan de Oro City, had the mayors forcibly moved them to safer grounds.

• Lay down drainage and flood controls. Many urbanizing areas flood up because lacking in sewers, while farms go dry because un-irrigated by water impounders.

• Reforest the mountains and shores. This project would employ tens of thousands nationwide, and at the same time prevent slides, provide food, clean the air, and slow down global warming.

• Clean and dredge waterways. Unclogging rivers of trash, and de-silting lakes and shores would deepen flood passages and offer food.

May I add again the compulsory hiring by all barangay, municipal and city halls of nurses to look after health needs of the barrio folk. If all the 42,000 barangays employ two to three each, then 84,000 to 126,000 (of the 230,000 jobless) nurses will find gainful work.

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Remember the blimps that saw action in World War I and II? Reader Narciso Ner suggests that the Philippine armed forces consider their use to reconnoiter the West Philippine Sea and the Spratlys. With less technological issues to hurdle, they would come out faster to procure than sea craft and jet fighters, which can come later. He shares basic research on the non-rigid and semi-rigid airships:

“Development of the airships began in 1912. The United States made good use of them during World War II. The Navy mobilized them for mine-sweeping, search and rescue, photographic reconnaissance, scouting, escorting convoys, and antisubmarine patrols. Airships guided oceangoing ships, military and civilian. Of 89,000 ships accompanied, not one was lost to enemy action.”

For the US Centennial of Flight Commission, Judy Rumerman writes:

“The Navy airships patrolled an area of over three million square miles over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the Mediterranean Sea. They could look down on the ocean surface and spot a rising submarine, to radio its position to the convoy’s surface ships. The blimps initially operated from bases on the east and west coasts of the United States. In 1944, six K-ships flew across the Atlantic to Morocco, where they formed a low-altitude antisubmarine barrier across the Strait of Gibraltar.

“Only one airship was lost to enemy action. A surfaced German U-boat shot down the airship K-74 during a battle. But the K_74 damaged the German sub so badly that it could not submerge. British bombers sunk it in the North Sea while it was en route to Germany for repairs.

Experts from the Universities of Manitoba and of Florida studied the revival of airships for the transport of perishable food. They note:

“An airship could support a massive solar array. For example, the proposed Lockheed-Martin stratospheric airship, which is 500 feet long and 160 feet in diameter, is being designed with a solar collector to provide regenerative power. Solar energy equipment that will operate at 65,000 feet should be adaptable to the 1,000- to 5,000-foot level. Airships have sufficient power to overcome all but the strongest and most persistent headwinds. Modern weather prediction and monitoring capabilities would allow airships to avoid potentially hazardous storms. Their considerable speed and ability to move over both land and water, they would be much better able than marine transport.”

The Germans were the first to use rigid airships for commercial use. The tragic blaze of Zeppelin’s Hindenburg halted production. But there is an upsurge of interest in airships. WENR Corp. made this announcement in Nov. 2007:

“Airships can be equipped with a variety of sensors and analytical systems, as well as transmitters and receivers for a range of uses: monitoring and mine detection. Compared to helicopters and aircraft, airships because of their low noise and vibration levels have advantage.”

German researchers Reinhard Grünwald and Dagmar Oertel add:

“Current airships are comparatively low in emissions, making them environmentally friendly. In contrast to other aircraft, they can hover without using energy and move at a relatively low speed (mostly below 80-100 kph).”

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