Apart from the distribution of family food packs, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will start to offer hot, home cooked meals in its 15 newly acquired mobile kitchens during disasters.
DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian said the mobile kitchens have been acquired through the assistance of Senator Joel Villanueva to help provide fresh and healthy meals for evacuees, especially in disaster situations that require long-term response.
“Of course, the evacuees cannot always eat preserved food and those at the food packs,” Gatchalian said. “These mobile kitchens can augment the (variety of) food they (can) eat the evacuation centers.”
Each mobile kitchen is worth over P5 million, and is equipped with sink, oven, kitchen utensils, refrigerator/freezer, stove, cooking wares and other stockpiles of food.
It has the capacity to serve a number of clients in evacuation centers, which may be organized into teams to help in the hot meal preparations depending on the extent of disaster.
The DSWD chief also inaugurated two mobile water treatment units capable of treating non-certified drinking/potable water of at least 6,000 liters per hour using ultrafiltration to make it safe for consumption.
A mobile water treatment unit costs over P5.7-million and can also process floodwater and seawater at least 2,500 liters per hour through desalination or reverse osmosis, transforming these unusable water sources into potable and drinkable water during emergency situations.
The agency has two new water tanker trucks worth over P7.9 million with a capacity of 10,000 liters each.
To improve its logistical capabilities, the agency also procured two new forklifts worth P1.5 million per unit, and a specialized reach truck worth P1.9 million.