UP, DOST teamwork key to Noah transition

MANILA, Philippines - The University of the Philippines and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) should continue to collaborate to ensure the efficient use of all the technologies and programs developed by Project NOAH (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards), project leader Mahar Lagmay said Tuesday.

Lagmay said that this continued integration provided by Project NOAH, previously under the DOST and now adopted by the UP, would have to be worked at by the two entities.

“That’s between the University of the Philippines and the DOST to discuss,” Lagmay said in the ceremonial turnover of the Project NOAH technologies to the DOST’s Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), the Mines Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council last Feb. 28 at the Sulo Riviera Hotel in Quezon City.

Lagmay said that disaster risk reduction needed a collaborative, integrative effort to ensure effectiveness.

He said that Project NOAH had served primarily as an integrator of various research and development projects being pursued by UP and DOST scientists and researchers all funded by the DOST.

“NOAH really integrated all of the projects,” Lagmay said. “It does not have any funding. What it integrated were all these meaningful projects that were funded by the Department of Science and Technology and implemented by various agencies, including PAGASA, Phivolcs, DOST ASTI, STII and UP.”

He said the approach for disaster risk reduction and survival against the impact of hazards needs to be holistic and cover the entire society. “The issue of survival affects everyone. It affects all sectors and it’s to our best interest that we work together,” Lagmay said.

UP president Danilo Concepcion announced last week that the state university has decided to adopt Project NOAH after the DOST chose to stop funding the program started by the previous administration.

Lagmay, on the sidelines of the turnover ceremonies, said that UP was not the sole supporter of Project NOAH.

“There’s a lot of other support coming from the private sector, from civil society organizations,” he said. 

And with UP’s adoption of NOAH starting this month, he said the primary concern over the project’s termination was the loss of human resources.

“The objective is to maintain that human resource. They’re a multi-disciplinary team,” Lagmay said.

Created in the aftermath of Typhoon Sendong in 2011, Project NOAH is composed of various disaster mitigation and prevention component projects funded by the DOST, and implemented by various agencies and departments of UP as well as DOST’s R&D institutes.