Disaster Risk Preparedness: How to Protect the Philippines

Howard Ruff once said that “It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark', this quote reflects the importance of disaster preparedness for risk reduction in cases of natural calamity. Noah was lucky enough to be warned by God to prepare for a big flood, but today calamities can strike anytime.

The Philippines geographic location makes it more volatile for natural calamities such as typhoons, floods, storm surges, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. I must admit, that the lecture made me realize that I lack knowledge for the risk profile of the Philippines, disaster management plans and generally what to do when disaster strikes. I guess this is because I am not aware of the reality of consequences of natural disaster. I have experienced the “Ondoy” flood in our area where in we had to evacuate our house due to the rapidly rising flood, but after that I never realized that even though the calamity did not affect me greatly it affected millions of Filipino families, and every year a new greater calamity is looming to happen. With the implementation of Republic Act 10121 or also known as Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010, we can see that government is trying its best to address the past failures in regards to disaster preparedness. I remember after Ondoy our barangay was equipped with life boats and ambulance in case of disaster, although One flaw I saw in this is that the barangay officials where not well trained to operate the machinery, also they did not conduct a preparedness seminar to the community to further enhance the effectiveness on the program. I remember 2 years ago there was fire near our barangay, and although we had a working fire truck it was not utilized because it was locked up and the person with key was no where to be found. This shows that there are still flaws to the Preparedness plan in our area and it should be reassessed.

In line with lecture, a plan that can be done for disaster preparedness in my community is to increase the level of awareness by educating them of the threats and hazards, what to do in cases of fire, flood and other calamities, and advocate that each household has an emergency bag prepared. Although our community is equipped with necessary tools, it lacks knowledgeable people to implement it better. Another way is to conduct semi-annual fire and earthquake drill not just nationwide but also focusing on the local barangays. The disaster response team of each community should always be assessed of there should always be a readily available response team since disaster can happen at any time.

In any great plan changes start from within so it our duty as citizen of the Philippines to be well informed and well educated on disaster risk reduction management. If a lot people start preparing for future unpredictable calamities it will lessen the negative impact of disaster. Preparedness is still and will always be the best way to reduce impacts of disaster. We simply cannot stop disaster but arming ourselves with proper knowledge and tools lessens its impact.