Philippines: Early warning system for Calabarzon region

Los Banos, Laguna - DOST IV-A will be presenting very soon its two of four modules of an early warning system (EWS) which will provide local amount of rainfall and river/stream level through an automatically disseminated weather bulletin from the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC IV-A) to its members in the province, city/ municipality, and Barangay.

The decision to test the EWS at an earlier date was reached by members of the cluster committee during a meeting held last January 12, 2011 at Los Baños, Laguna.

It was initially presented last January 27, 2011. “We want to be more than ready when the next typhoon hits the region,” Alexander R. Madrigal, regional director of DOST CALABARZON, explains. Together with Vicente F. Tomazar, chairman of RDRRMC IV-A, Madrigal initiated establishment of the “ICT-based Disaster Monitoring and Feedback System.” The project supports the newly enacted Republic Act 10121 otherwise known as the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 which strengthens the country’s disaster risk reduction and management system, provides for a national framework, as well as, institutionalized draft and implementation of a plan.

Having convened a group of concerned National Government Agencies (NGAs) and the Local Government Units of Sta Cruz City, Los Baños, and Bay earlier on, Madrigal and Tomazar have agreed through a Memorandum of Understanding signed last November 18, 2010 to implement an information system which consists of modules on:

• Automated information dissemination of weather bulletins from RDRRMC IV-A to its members in the province, city/ municipality, and barangay;

• Feedback that captures and stores data on actual weather conditions in a locality;

• Early Warning System which monitors and sends advisory on weather and risk of flooding to potentially at risk areas; and

• Public inquiry to make accessible to the public and other stakeholders, through the Internet and mobile phones, weather bulletins and other related updates.

A Technical Working Group (TWG), composed of representatives from the Regional Offices of DENR, NAMRIA, DILG, PAGASA, Oxfam, Colegio de Letran de Calamba, RDRRMC and DOST, as well as, the Local Government Units of Los Baños, Bay and Sta. Cruz has been formed. DOST IV-A has also sourced new related technologies from Colegio de Letran de Calamba which will also be soon pilot tested after fabrication.

In addition, RDRRMC IV-A and DOST CALABARZON have completed inventory of equipment such as digital and analog-based rain gauges and water level monitoring equipment that are being used to date in the region. Lastly, DOST IV-A and RDRRMC IV-A, together with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) Regional Office, have tapped use of the Message Blast Promotion being offered by SMART to NTC. (AMGuevarra, DOST4A/PIA-Laguna)