Officials urged to prepare for Yolanda-like typhoons

Local officials in Cebu should prepare for a supertyphoon in the same magnitude as Yolanda (Haiyan).

“You know that there will be another disaster. You don’t know when it will happen but you know it will happen. You have to plan for it,” said Margareta Wahlstrom, special representative of United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki Moon.

Wahlstrom, along with Commissioner Naderev “Yeb” Saño of the Climate Change Commission, were in the provincial capitol yesterday morning and met with Gov. Hilario Davide III and some mayors from typhoon-ravaged areas in northern Cebu yesterday morning.

She said preparedness is “organizing ourselves in advance” and “knowing your partners” ahead of disasters.

Wahlstrom said it is crucial that local government units in Cebu ready measures to mitigate the destructive effects of typhoons.

REALITY

Saño, whose emotional speech at a United Nations (UN) climate change conference days after the Yolanda devastation went viral in social media, said one must accept the reality of climate change in relation to disaster preparedness.

“We now have to face the reality that climate change is really happening and it’s already affecting many places in our country,” he said in an interview yesterday.

Saño said nearly all the world’s disasters today are related to climate change.

“For one, Cebu was not really typhoon-prone in the past. But now it has to face the reality that there are going to be more typhoons here,” he said.

“Because of climate change, you see many other repercussions that includes for the Philippines, warmer temperature. We would also have extreme events like typhoons and long dry periods as well as increased precipitation, more rains during the rainy season and very dry conditions during the summer,” he added.

RISKS

Saño said the manifestations of climate change has become “more pronounced,” affecting more people, food production, and the economy in general.

“When the climate changes in this way, our farmers and fisherfolks find it very difficult to adjust. What is important is for us to prepare our community against the risks,” he said.

Saño said he’s glad to hear from some mayors in Cebu about the measures local governments have undertaken to protect the people against the effects of climate change.

“Disasters are basically the manifestation of several factors working together which produces very negative results. We’re losing a lot of economic resources to all of these disasters. More importantly, we’re losing a lot of lives,” he said.

Wahlstrom said she hopes the private sector can do pre-disaster agreements with local government units so they will not be caught off-guard when disasters come.

MONITOR

“I think what needs to be done is to reduce the scale and the number of human deaths as well as reduce the scale of economic loses so that communities can quickly rebuild their lives,” she said.

Wahlstrom said she will visit Cebu every once in a while to monitor the rebuilding programs in areas devastated by the typhoons.

“I think, you’re doing very well here precisely because the private sectors sets in and I think you have an efficient local government,” she said.

Amid criticism against the national government concerning its slow response to helping typhoon victims, Wahlstrom still believe that the government can still perform the responsibilities entrusted to them.

“When the whole world is watching, they see all the problems, they don’t see the positive aspect. That’s always the problem with disasters. You look for faults and not for what happened,” she said.

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