The Philippines called on local government units (LGUs) to take advantage of available hazard maps as part of early warning systems to avert disasters and safeguard lives and livelihoods.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has noted that more lives are being protected from extreme weather and dangerous climate change impacts but there is a long way to go. Half of countries globally still do not have adequate multi-hazard early warning systems, it said.
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo Loyzaga has urged local executives to integrate the use of hazard maps in decision-making.
“A hazard does not have to become a disaster,” Loyzaga said during a radio interview earlier this month.
The environment chief sounded off the appeal in the wake of the landslide incident in Maco, Davao de Oro, stressing the DENR’s collaborative efforts with key national and local agencies to enhance the preparedness and resilience of affected communities.
A report from the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and the WMO finds that Africa has doubled the quality of early warning systems coverage, but still falls below the global average. Less than half of the Least Developed Countries and only 40 percent of small island developing states, meanwhile, have a multi-hazard early warning system.
Recalling the incidence of an earlier landslide in the area back in 2008, Loyzaga stressed the significance of recognizing data-driven indicators for early warning and action. These include the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration’s (PAGASA) record of unusually high rainfall in January this year, which was four times the affected area’s monthly average in the nearest weather station.
Loyzaga acknowledged the importance ofLGU leadership in early action guided by hazard maps. She underscores that early warning should lead to early action.
The environment chief cited the critical role of a whole-of-society approach―to face these challenges with the government, communities, private sector, and even the citizens. To facilitate early disaster readiness actions and promote science-based decision-making, especially in highly vulnerable areas, the DENR, through its Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), continues to update the distributed hazard maps and conduct information, education, and communication campaigns.
The agency issues tailored geo-hazard advisories for-LGUs and concerned barangays.
The DENR in collaboration with the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) provides hazard maps and advisories for proactive disaster preparedness in alignment with the latter agency’s disaster risk reduction and management program.
Over 400 million people in LDCs and SIDS now have access to better predictions and warnings for floods, drought, heat waves and tropical cyclones. Countries such as Papua New Guinea and Burkina Faso can now issue drought seasonal predictions for small-scale farmers, many of them women, thanks to the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems Initiative (CREWS).
The WMO report said 101 countries have reported having an early warning system, an increase of six countries compared to last year, and representing a doubling of coverage since 2015.
“What we are delivering under the Early Warnings for All initiative can protect and save vulnerable communities from the worst impacts. This is an ambitious goal―but it is also achievable,” said António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations. DENR, UN News