PLDT, DOST to monitor 18 river basins for flood hazards

MANILA, Philippines - Telecommunications industry leader Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) Company is working on a project that will monitor the country’s 18 major river basins to see if anyone of them is in danger of flooding and threatening nearby communities.

In a speech read before delegates of the 1st International River Summit held at the Centennial Convention Center in Iloilo City, PLDT chairman Manuel Pangilinan said they are working closely with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) which is spearheading the program dubbed “Project Noah.” The project is to be implemented over a two-year period with a funding of P1.8 billion.

“The idea is to build flood monitoring and warning system in 18 of the country’s major river basins. As our contribution, we have agreed to let the DOST install its automatic rain gauges in 600 cell sites of Smart and Sun all over the country,” Pangilinan said.

Smart and Sun, both part of the PLDT Group, will also handle transmission of the rainfall data to the central data base of DOST. This will enable DOST to have accurate real-time rainfall measurements in all these river basins.

“Under Project Noah, DOST will also map out the 18 target river basins using the Light Detection and Ranging or LIDAR system,” Pangilinan noted.

LIDAR is an optical remote sensing technology that can generate very accurate topographical maps of the river basins. When these LIDAR maps are combined with rainfall data, DOST will be able to create computer-generated flood forecasting models. Using these models, DOST will be able to tell which areas will be under how many feet of flood waters given a certain amount of rainfall.

“If this is implemented properly, Project Noah combined with other new technologies like Doppler Radar will finally bring the country’s disaster preparedness systems into the 21st century. Even before floods strike, we will know how such calamities will impact on our cities and towns,” he stressed.

“Project Noah will offer communities both an opportunity and a challenge,” Pangilinan said, adding that it is not only a disaster preparedness tool but is also a development planning tool.

“This will enable you to correctly decide where to bring development in your respective areas so you can avoid building in areas that are especially vulnerable to the wrath of rivers,” he pointed out.

Meanwhile, Ramon Isberto, head of the PLDT-Smart Public Affairs Group, said the 600 additional rain gauges will be spread in around 8,000 to 9,000 cell sites of Smart and Sun combined.

“With this project, important data can be generated and delivered in real time. This will greatly help in tracking the actual condition of the country’s river basins,” Isberto said.