35 village officials train on disaster preparedness

DUMAGUETE CITY , Philippines  - Thirty five village officials from eight barangays in the city recently underwent disaster preparedness training.

The training was initiated by the city government, which requested Smart Communications Inc. through its Corporate Network for Disaster Response (CNDR), to conduct the project similar to what the firm did in Davao City.

Nova Concepcion, Smart Communication's community partnerships manager for environment and disaster preparedness, said this public-private partnership is carrying out three projects under their company's disaster preparedness program: the recently conducted community-based trainings, Project Rain Gauge and tree planting.

"We are trying to raise to the city, the community, and the city officials the awareness on the need for disaster preparedness," even if Dumaguete is not that disaster prone, she said.

Mayor Chiquiting Sagarbarria said he wanted to ensure the preparedness of the different communities in the city for any eventuality that might occur, like that in 2009 when the city for the first time experienced flash flooding. "We have to be prepared and the best way to prepare is through the community," he said.

Concepcion said the training, which is capacity building, is implemented via the firm's CNDR, which "reaches out to LGUs and trains them on community-based disaster risk management or educational programs on what the new disaster preparedness law is all about."

The CNDR taught the village officials of Dumaguete on the basics of better preparation for and respond to flashfloods. Topics covered were community risk assessment; risk, resources, and hazard mapping; and drafting of disaster contingency plans.

The officials came from barangays Taclobo, Candau-ay, Batinguel, Bagacay, Poblacion 8, Tabuctubig, Calindagan, Tinago, Canti-e, Cadawinonan, Camanjac, Looc, Piapi, and Bantayan.

Project Rain Gauge, on the other hand, has been designed to educate high school students on scientific thinking. "It's a big science project where we are teaching them how to monitor rain fall, interpret it, and make it available to the internet for researcher's use," Conception said.

When the students become more adept on gathering data, the data gathered could be useful for the city's disaster coordinating council, she said.

Project Rain Gauge was developed by the Manila Observatory, PAGASA, and Smart. Data gathered by around 70 participating schools all over the country, can be viewed and downloaded at its website projectraingauge.ph.

Concepcion said that the site can generate graphs, tables, and averages based on information provided by participating schools twice a day.

The third one, tree planting activities are done along river banks and watershed areas as a disaster risk reduction measure against flash floods. "Tree planting… solves the watershed problem because if your watershed is deforested, there will be run off of silt that will cause flooding," she said.

Here in Dumaguete, nine schools were given by Smart with standard rain gauges: the national high schools of the city itself, Camanjac, Junob, RTPM-Dumaguete Science High School, Hermenigilda F. Gloria Memorial High School, Maxino College, the high schools of Taclobo and Piapi, and St. Paul University-Dumaguete.