Standing by you

As the country was preparing for Christmas, Typhoon Odette hit ten of its 17 regions, causing more than 400 deaths, affecting more than 7.8 million people and causing devastation in vast parts of the Visayas and northern Mindanao.

This disaster has touched us deeply, here and far away. As an unswerving partner of the Philippines, the European Union heeded the call. We lost no time when our humanitarian aid arm, ECHO, rapidly mobilized an assessment mission in the Visayas and immediately P99 million were allocated to be deployed through partner organizations on the ground who were ready to act. This humanitarian aid covers the provision of food, drinking water, shelter and other urgently needed household items.

EU Member-States (Germany, Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, Netherlands, Finland and Sweden) also pooled resources. Together with “Team Europe,” more than P342 million in humanitarian assistance were immediately allocated to the Philippines. In addition, several EU Member-States vastly contribute to the emergency funds of multilateral humanitarian institutions, which help Filipinos through the UN or the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The crisis is far from over as 169,000 people are left in evacuation centers and as humanitarian agencies struggle with power outages, communication connectivity problems and damaged transportation networks.

For this reason, I am very proud that the EU humanitarian agency ECHO announced a few days ago the provision of some additional P580 million to respond to the huge humanitarian needs arising from Typhoon Odette. These funds will be directed to securing food and livelihood recovery support, essential non-food items, water and sanitation, logistics, shelter and settlements, support to public health, education in support of disrupted distant learning and protection.

This support comes on top of the regular humanitarian aid that the European Union provides every year to the Philippines for those affected by conflict in Mindanao, backing against the coronavirus, disaster preparedness and other humanitarian operations in the country, which will amount to about P200 million in 2022. The Philippines will also benefit in 2022 from the 9.5 million euros in ECHO funds allocated to the Southeast Asia region for disaster preparedness. In total, the EU has provided 153.6 million euros (or P8.9 billion) in humanitarian funding to the Philippines since 1996.

Copernicus technology

Aside from the emergency assistance provided for in the Philippines, the EU has provided free of charge satellite maps of the affected areas. Through the EU Copernicus Emergency Management Services, to date, 17 maps have been produced focusing on Cagdiana, Dinagat Islands, Cebu City and Hinunangan, Southern Leyte. These maps, which are available to all concerned domestic and international stakeholders, show the extent of the destruction caused by the typhoon.

Copernicus technology is not only helpful during disasters such as Typhoon Odette. It can also strengthen the country’s national hazard management capability and disaster mitigation strategies. I am very happy that we just signed a financing agreement for a 10-million-euro cooperation project on the utilization of satellite data from the Copernicus Earth Observation program for disaster management and climate change in the Philippines.

This is the first space cooperation program in the region and the technology is expected to support evidence-based decision-making for a more efficient coordinated response to climate change impacts and other forms of natural disasters. The technology will also promote better early warning systems and disaster risk assessment mapping.

Lessons learnt

There are many challenges in coping with disasters and their aftermath. What we learned following Typhoon Yolanda provided us many points for reflection. No doubt, the lessons learnt during Yolanda contributed to better preparedness. This may explain why, in spite of similar devastation, the death toll from Typhoon Odette has been much less. At the same time, the response required for Typhoon Odette is comparable to that of Typhoon Yolanda.

One of the lessons from Typhoon Yolanda was the importance of building disaster-resilient infrastructure. In partnership with the UNDP, the EU at the time funded the construction of 11 evacuation centers and 165 household shelters in 15 municipalities in Leyte, Biliran and Eastern Samar. This kind of infrastructure has proven essential in limiting the human loss brought by Typhoon Odette.

The devastation caused by Typhoon Odette is a stark reminder of how extreme weather caused by global warming can destroy entire towns and cause the suffering of millions.  We need to strengthen adaptation measures at the local level to build community resilience against extreme climate-related events.

Like the Philippines, Europe and the rest of the world are still beset with many hurdles in adapting to climate change. But if all of us could practice a sustainable lifestyle to help cut greenhouse gas emissions in our homes, communities or businesses, we may still stand a chance to secure a better future for our next generation.

But one thing is clear: In moments of disaster, we need the political will to fight climate change and to stand by each other.

*      *      *

Luc Véron is Ambassador of the European Union to the Philippines