Print version Email to a friend

Philippine town motivates residents to keep disasters at bay

Wed, 25 May 2011 14:41 GMT

Source: alertnet // Purple S. Romero

Residents living in low-lying areas along the Mactan Channel are evacuated by the local government further inland as a precautionary measure in Cebu City on December 9, 2006, as Typhoon Utor swept into the central Philippines. REUTERS/Victor Kintanar

By Purple S. Romero

MANILA (AlertNet) - The inhabitants of San Francisco, located in the Philippines’ Cebu province, earn just $115 a month on average. And they have learned the hard way that natural hazards can snatch away what little they have.

In 1982 and 1990, tropical storms left a trail of shattered homes and agricultural losses across the area.

Rosalinda Serion, a local disaster risk reduction officer, said many lost their homes in the blink of an eye because they were made of lightweight materials.

"It's too much for them to pay for cement," she explained.                 

But now the farming and fishing communities of the southern Philippine municipality are tackling the twin challenges of disasters and poverty through resident-led councils that work to protect local people and their environment from storms and floods.

The risks the communities face are substantial. Livelihoods are at stake, since 12 sub-villages in San Francisco are fishing communities. Because the town is nestled on an island far from Cebu city, it is hard to deliver food and other aid in an emergency.

The region also faces climate-related threats including frequent monsoon winds and droughts caused by the El Niño phenomenon, in which the Pacific Ocean warms.

Mayor Aly Arquillano believes his town has no other option but to prepare for extreme weather patterns, which scientists predict will be exacerbated by climate change in the coming decades.

"Climate change is a global problem. Our main problem here is poverty,” he said. “If we don't do anything about both, we will only suffer more.”

NEW LAW HELPS PREPARE

The lessons from past disasters have taken some time to learn. It was the passage of the 2010 Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act (DRRM Act) that galvanised San Francisco's officials, led by Vice Mayor Alfred Arquillano, to use disaster risk reduction measures as a way of improving people’s socio-economic status.

The act rectified a major flaw in previous legislation that only allowed local leaders to access calamity funds - which account for 5 percent of the town's revenues - after a disaster had already struck. That meant the money had been used mainly for reactive emergency response, including search-and-rescue operations.

The new law permits local officials to tap calamity funds for preparing ahead of disasters too, enabling San Francisco to set aside $255,000 for its 2011-2015 disaster risk reduction plan. The strategy was developed by the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council with input from local leaders and assistance from aid group Plan International.

COMMUNITY COUNCILS

Even before the new legislation, San Francisco’s leaders had joined hands with Plan to develop the “purok system” (purok means sub-village in the Filipino language). Local leaders set up a council for each purok to guide people through the disaster risk reduction process.

The councils are made up of ordinary residents. "Some of them have not even finished elementary school," Serion said. But through workshops conducted by local officials, they were able to learn how to mobilise their neighbours to protect themselves in times of natural disasters.

Initially people weren’t so enthusiastic to sign up for the job because it was voluntary and therefore unpaid, Serion said.

To counteract this, the authorities introduced an annual “purok beautification” contest, in which localities can win $460 if they implement solid waste management, hold regular meetings and trainings, and promote the growing of food in backyard gardens.

"I don't want a dole-out policy," Vice Mayor Arquillano said. "They have to do something to deserve this incentive."

The prize money is added to the sub-village’s capital for livelihood programmes, such as selling local products and handicrafts. "Now they (the councils) are like a small government," Mayor Arquillano said.

LOCAL SOLUTIONS TO LOCAL PROBLEMS

The community councils help identify the puroks’ problems and their causes. In one case, fishermen's catches had been declining. They admitted to using fine fishnets which trap small, developing fish, according to agriculture expert Gary Muna. In response, the 15 affected sub-villages built a marine sanctuary to help rebuild stocks of young fish.

Francis Carreon of Plan International said the group also planted more mangroves, which provide shelter for young fish as well as storing carbon, a major greenhouse gas.

"Climate change is addressed, and at the same, there is an economic advantage because the fish will grow," he said.

Another challenge was illegal logging, which increases the risk of flooding in San Francisco during strong typhoons. As a solution, a local law was passed requiring residents to take part in a project to plant two million trees. 

San Francisco's efforts to help its people help themselves in the face of disasters and climate change have been recognised both locally and globally. This month, the town was one of three municipalities awarded the 2011 UN-Sasakawa Award for Disaster Risk Reduction. And Cebu province honoured it with the Expanded Green and Wholesome Environment that Nurtures Award in 2009 and 2010. 

RAIN GAUGES TRIGGER EVACUATIONS

San Francisco’s five-year-plan has three components: disaster prevention, disaster mitigation and preparedness.

Under prevention, the municipality aims to construct and strengthen infrastructure to withstand the effects of natural calamities. This entails assessing bridges and roads, enforcing building regulations, and installing rainwater receptacles at public buildings to conserve water and help prevent flooding.

Mitigation involves educating all inhabitants about disasters, from the young to the elderly. Working with the Department of Education, lessons on disaster risk reduction will be integrated into the school curriculum for elementary and high school students, and the council is organising awareness sessions for senior citizens.

Farmers will also be given advice on organic farming and climate-resilient crops.

To prepare better for disasters, volunteers have been trained in the use of geographic information systems and early warning methods. Plan International has provided rain gauges that measure rainfall.

When rainfall levels increase significantly, council leaders are warned so they can prepare residents for a possible evacuation. Serion said council leaders ring bells placed at a strategic points in sub-villages to tell people it's time to pack up and go. Volunteers monitor the health and safety of evacuees.   

Meanwhile, the local government is building links with both national and international organisations that could help fund and implement its disaster prevention activities.

Plan’s Carreon said these efforts are all the more important because climate change is likely to increase the intensity of natural disasters. "We may have longer droughts, (and) the storms could be stronger and come in batches," he warned. 

Purple S. Romero is a Manila-based copy editor for the Jakarta Globe who does freelance reporting.