Capitol to hold ‘La Niña caravans’ next month
The Capitol will also target students in their information drive on La Niña to prepare them on what to do during floods caused by rains spawned by the weather phenomenon. (CDN FILE)
WITH the weather bureau expecting La Niña in the coming months, the Capitol is planning to conduct an information campaign about this weather phenomenon, which will surely bring more rains in the country.
Virgilio Jakosalem, provincial supervising agriculturist, said yesterday that they would hold a province-wide information caravan on La Niña next month, in time for the onset of the rainy season.
Jakosalem said at least 15 people from various Capitol departments would be part of the caravan team, including those from the agriculture, disaster management, health, and engineering offices.
“We will distribute leaflets and brochures in vernacular all over the province so information will be easier to recall. We will also conduct fora and small meetings about La Niña,” he said.
He said that the brochures and leaflets have yet to be finalized but this would surely include information about cleaning rivers, preparing emergency kits in case of floods caused by the rains spawned by the La Niña, and encouraging Cebuanos to listen to weather advisories.
This early, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) predicted that there would be a 50 percent chance of a La Niña developing in October this year.
The weather bureau said that La Niña, often, although not always, follows an El Niño.
La Niña is characterized by persistent cooler than average sea surface temperature anomalies (below -0.5 degrees Celsius) over the tropical Pacific.
Jakosalem said the provincial government would also tap Pagasa for its information and education campaign.
“Due to limited manpower, we know it will be difficult for them to tag along. But we can just contact them for whatever information we need,” he added.
The Capitol has yet to finalize the schedule of the caravan within the week.
Ethel Natera, public information officer of the Cebu Provincial government, said they would focus their La Niña information dissemination campaign on schools all over the province.
“La Niña might fall on school days, so we would like to give information to children in schools on what to do before, during, and after,” said Natera.
Natera said students would also be able to relay to their parents information about La Niña when they would get home from school.
She said that, if possible, they would visit all 51 component towns and cities to reach as many people as they could.
Natera also said that frontline offices in the provincial government, which would include health, veterinary and agriculture offices, had been ordered to draft an action plan to address possible problems that might occur during the La Niña.
She said these would be submitted to the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) on Monday.
“The PDRRMO will collate all the information and will submit them to the National Economic Development Authority, the information hub in the entire Central Visayas,” said Natera.
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