President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has directed different government agencies to make the necessary preparations and come up with a strategy to address the looming dry spell or El Niño phenomenon that may hit the country this year until early next year.
During a sectoral meeting, the President tasked select government agencies to come up with a campaign to generate public awareness to conserve water and energy, among others, to mitigate the effects of the El Niño phenomenon, said Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Administrator Undersecretary Ariel Nepomuceno in a press briefing in Malacañang on Tuesday.
“Earlier, President Marcos gave clear instructions or orders that we should strengthen our preparations for the expected adverse effects of El Niño,” Nepomuceno said, noting the Department of Health (DOH) was expected to gear toward addressing illnesses that may appear as a result of El Niño.
“Secondly, that is preparation for the lack of water. We are expecting that, so he ordered earlier that we should have a public awareness campaign and immediately especially should start with government agencies, institutions including public institutions that are schools or schools to save water immediately before your problem gets worse.”
Aside from conserving water, the President, Nepomuceno said, wants the public to conserve electricity to cushion the effects of the dry spell, which could intensify in the last quarter of the year or early next year.
There are two specific instructions given by the President, Nepomuceno said.
One is the adoption of a whole-of-government or whole-of-nation approach, and the other one is putting up protocol-based and scientific long-term processes that could be adopted by the country.
Through the mechanisms of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), the President specifically instructed concerned government agencies to quickly form an El Niño team so they could effectively respond to the crisis, according to the OCD official.
Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Administration (DOST-PAGASA) Deputy Administrator Esperanza Cayanan said during the same press briefing that in their latest forecast, the probability of the occurrence of El Niño increased to 80 percent this coming June, July, and August.
The forecast also notes that the probability may also spike to about 86 percent for November, December, and January, she said.
“Before we feel the effects of this El Niño, which is less amount of rainfall in most areas of the country, we still have a rainy season,” Esperanza said.
The sectoral meeting was attended by the chiefs of the Department of National Defense (DND), Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Science and
Technology (DOST), National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Health (DOH), National Irrigation Administration (NIA), National Water Resources Board (NWRB), and the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage Systems (MWSS).
