Cebu City now under state of preparedness due to El Niño

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City is now placed under state of preparedness with the intensifying El Niño phenomenon.

With this declaration of the City Council, all executive department heads and their support units are directed to draft plans to counter the impacts of the dry spell, with its corresponding budgetary requirements.

“Declaring the whole City of Cebu under state of preparedness and to direct all departments to submit their respective plans in order to lessen the impact of the El Niño phenomenon which is expected to hit Central Visayas starting last quarter of 2015,” read the resolution approved in yesterday’s council session.

Key officials have seven days to submit their plans to the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council for evaluation and consolidation.

Councilor David Tumulak, who also chairs CCDRRMC, authored the resolution.

“In the past few days, Cebu experienced a fairly good weather. But at the same time, everyone has been experiencing the heat that is no longer normal at this time of the year when we are supposed to be on rainy season going towards the Lenten part of the year end,” he said.

The disaster team noticed that the effects of the El Niño phenomenon are already felt in upland villages. These effects are the drying up of rivers and farmlands, shortage of water, among others.

In lowland areas, the common effects felt are illnesses such as dehydration and heatstroke.

Members of CCDRRMC and of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) have convened on August 18 to discuss the matter.

According to the recent forecast of PAGASA - Visayas, the above normal high temperature Cebu is currently experiencing is a sign of the “intensifying effect of the El Niño phenomenon.”

Next month, Cebu is expected to experience dry condition. By October, temperature will intensify that would lead to dry spell.

Weather specialists have warned that by the end of the year, Cebu will experience the “worst” as the El Niño phenomenon will reach its highest level called drought, which is predicted to last until the first quarter of 2016.

PAGASA defines “drought” as three consecutive months of way-below normal rainfall condition or more than 60 percent reduction from average rainfall.

The Mactan office of the weather bureau also considered this year 2015 as still running to be “the hottest year.”

With this, CCDRRMC has recommended the declaration of the city under state of preparedness against the dry spell’s impacts. — (FREEMAN)