PRO-8 director orders probe Landslide early warning device in S. Leyte stolen

PALO, LEYTE —Police Regional Office-8 director, Chief Supt. Arnold Revilla yesterday ordered the Southern Leyte provincial police to investigate the theft of the Sensor-based Landslide Early Warning System (SLEWS) equipment, installed at a mountain village of Malinao in St. Bernard town.

Revilla also directed the St. Bernard Police and Southern Leyte Police director, Sr. Supt. Felipe Pacada, to recover the device, which was found to have been stolen since Thursday when the Municipal Disaster Management Office checked on it after noticing a stoppage in the transmittal of data from the SLEWS.

The theft was reported by Olaf Nuessner, chief adviser of the Environment and Rural Development Program of Deutche Geselleschaft fur International Zusammernarbeit (GIZ) that installed the SLEWS only in November last year.

"The police already identified a suspect and we hope the equipment could be recovered soon since it is mostly needed at this time when heavy rains continue to hit the area. We need it to periodically monitor and send us data on the situation of the 16 identified landslide-prone areas," Nuessner said.

Nuessner said the $5,000-worth equipment was still in its testing stage. It was put up, with the help of the Department of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology of the RWTH Aachen University in Germany, with the initiative of the St. Bernard local government to monitor earth movements in the landslide-prone areas of Southern Leyte.

"The system was set up at the potential landslide area in Brgy. Malinao. All sensor nodes were placed near larger cracks and fissures in the field. Five sensor nodes were installed in the area," Nuessner said.

The stolen equipment had a motion sensor, radio transmitter, solar panels, antenna, two batteries and a router.

After the Guinsaugon landslide in 2006 that buried at least 1,000 people, St. Bernard carried out a disaster risk management program, which also led the installation of the Local Flood Early Warning System (LFEWS), followed by the SLEWS last year.

"LFEWS detects water level rise of rivers, while SLEWS detects dangerous or unusual movement and tilting of soil which could further worsen and develop into landslides when heavy rains come," said Nuessner.

He said Barangay Malinao, about five kilometers from Guinsaugon, were found to have high risk of landslide when deformations were noticed on a mountain slope about 850 meters from the village, prompting GIZ to make the Malinao the pilot area for SLEWS.

"After the theft, at least 40 households have been left without advance warning of landslide. The system could also warn other neighboring villages from impending landslides," Nuessner added.

Philippine Information Agency regional director Olive Tiu yesterday reported that Barangay Manalog in Hinunangan, Southern Leyte has been isolated for the past two days due to flooding caused by continuing downpour. Transport, via military helicopters, of relief goods for 200 families in that village was also aborted due to zero visibility, she said.

In Eastern Samar, Maslog town Mayor Septemo Santiago said rice fields in his town have been submerged in floodwaters and, even if this subsided yesterday, evacuated people were hesitant to return to their houses due to fear of recurring floods considering that heavy rains continued until yesterday.

Private groups, the DSWD-8, Senator Chez Escudero and the An Waray Party-list have distributed relief goods to the evacuees, in addition to the P1 million-worth of relief items from the municipal government, said Santiago who however was worried about some cases of flu, respiratory problems and diarrhea among the people.

The Eastern Samar Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council also reported that two more lately died due to the flooding, bringing the total casualties in the province to eight.

The province suffered an estimated P371-million worth of damages in agriculture and infrastructure, the hardest-hit town of which was Dolores, deemed the province's rice granary.

Vegetable crops were destroyed in the towns of Borongan, Llorente, Maslog and Sulat.

In Northern Samar, two men drowned and close to 65,000 families were affected by floods in 18 of 24 towns, the hardest hit of which were Las Navas, Mondragon and Catubig. (FREEMAN)