Phl urged to build climate-resilient communities

MANILA, Philippines - How are climate-resilient communities created?

Experts who gathered during the recently-concluded Partnerships for Disaster and Climate Resilience conference hosted by the Carlos Romulo Foundation for Peace and Development, Manila Observatory, and the Zuellig Family Foundation conceded that strong infrastructure, effective disaster response plans, and proper funding are factors that ensure the  creation of  communities that could withstand most disasters.

The World Risk Report jointly published by the United Nations University’s Institute for Environment and Human Security, the German Alliance for Development Works and The Nature Conservancy ranked the Philippines as the third most disaster prone country among 173 countries surveyed.

The Philippines has experienced three times the global average in sea level rise. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Philippines recorded the highest average increase in sea levels in 2013 at 60 centimeters against the global average of 19 centimeters since 1901.

Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, vice chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,  said the Philippines should take climate change adaptation seriously to prepare for stronger typhoons that would visit its area of responsibility as a consequence of rising sea levels.

“The Philippines can brace itself for the worst, but there’s no way than to drastically change the way structures are built in the coastal areas. It’s to build a more resilient society, a more resilient infrastructure, an infrastructure made of housing, of buildings that resists better in extreme events with very high winds. Very strong rain events. That is what is called adaptation to climate change and increasing resilience,” he said.

The Philippine Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 defines resilience as a community’s ability to resist or recover from the effects of a disaster in a timely and efficient manner.

Revisiting the Fukushima tsunami response

Whenever natural disasters are mentioned, Fukushima is remembered as the prefecture most affected by the giant tsunami and earthquake that rocked Japan on March 11, 2011.

Power supply was cut for the cooling mechanism of one of its nuclear plants, causing several hydrogen explosions and release of radiation.

Fukushima is located 260 kilometers north of Tokyo. It takes an hour and a half by train to arrive there from Japan’s capital.

It is one of the largest prefecture in Japan in terms of land area, with its economy largely dependent on agriculture, manufacturing and energy, serving as Tokyo’s energy provider for 100 years.

“The coastline of Fukushima was washed away and many people lost their lives,” recalled Professor Satoru Mimura of the Fukushima Future Center for Regional Revitalization of the disaster that struck in 2011.

Some 130,000 to 140,000 residents of the prefecture, mostly from the rural areas, had to be evacuated due to  radiation contamination.

In the aftermath of the disaster, the prefecture immediately opened its school gymnasium as an emergency shelter before transferring evacuees to makeshift houses specifically designed for disasters.

“Our schools were made to withstand natural disasters,” said Mimura.

Residents who were properly evacuated were given compensation by the prefecture after they lost their jobs.

Having a properly-set disaster response thus enabled the prefecture to pay attention to details beyond survival such as the social problems caused by the disaster. The Japanese government likewise was able to restore the livelihood of affected residents as well as  good community relations.

However, solving the social problems caused by the disaster remains to be a challenge after three years, Mimura admitted.

“It’s still a challenge to encourage people to go back to their original communities. Their houses have been abandoned for three years and it is not easy to repair them especially for the elderly. Job opportunities in the affected areas are also slow,” he said.

Building resilience in Albay

“In Albay, we do not know how to spell response. When there is no risk, there is nothing to respond to,” Albay governor Joey Salceda candidly revealed in his discussion on his province’s experience in responding to various disasters.

Albay is located in the Bicol region, the capital of which is Legazpi. Being a coastal province, it is prone to typhoons and potential disasters from numerous volcanoes in the province.

“We have all the risks, we are the Vatican of disasters,” Salceda said.

The province’s disaster risk reduction and management program is now used as a model for various provinces in the Philippines because of its easy to follow system.

“(Resilience) is not a program we implemented. We made it a culture, a way of life, as easy to follow as ABC,” said Salceda.

The province’s disaster risk reduction program is aimed at attaining zero casualty in times of disaster by enhancing the coping capabilities of its populace in times of calamity especially vulnerable sectors such as women and children.

The local government of Albay has invested heavily in the education of its constituents on coping measures in times of natural disasters, establishing early warning systems and disaster risk mapping for effective land use.

The province has also established model relocation communities for displaced constituents which are located around 20 minutes away from their original source of livelihood.

“The most sacred fund in my provincial budget is the calamity fund,”  Salceda revealed.

The provincial government of Albay has also included disaster risk reduction management into the school curriculum and into public education where disaster risk experts interact with various stakeholders.

The provincial government has also increased coordination between mayors and the heads of government agencies directly involved in disaster risk management.

“If we have the funding and the means, we can do it. We just have to do it,” said Salceda.

Moving forward

World Bank country manager Motoo Konishi, for his part, stressed the need for the  Philippines to  immediately institute measures that would protect people from the adverse effects of climate change to end poverty.

“When a disaster hits, there is the relief part, there is the recovery part and there is the reconstruction and there is reconstruction and resilience,” he said.

“Having infrastructure that allows people to get away from these threat is important. These must be long-term infrastructure that protects people,” he added.

Konishi said natural disasters like Super Typhoon Yolanda that hit the Visayas in November 2013 could immediately plunge people into poverty if they are not protected from its adverse effects.

“There are 25 million people in the Philippines living below the poverty line. 6.3 million of them are concentrated in cities and urban municipalities. The poor in urban and rural areas alike suffer disproportionately from the impacts of climate change. The likes of informal settlers living along the drainages of urban areas and constantly at threat when the rains come,” said Konishi.

“Likewise, in the rural areas, it is not only their lives that are in danger but their crops and their sources of livelihood as well. It is sad to note that Typhoon Yolanda pushed an additional two million people below the poverty line overnight. If we don’t confront climate change now, we won’t end extreme poverty,” he added.

He urged the Philippines to work towards building disaster-resilient communities beginning with strong infrastructure that could “withstand major threats” and could be used as shelter in times of disaster.

“When I was growing up in Japan, when the siren went off for tsunami, we were instructed to run off to the school. Schools are supposed to withstand almost anything and provide protection for the public. We need to think about that in the Philippines,” the World Bank official advised.