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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Disaster agency forms team to address El Niño impacts

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The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said it has formed a team to address the impacts of El Niño, as the country braces for a hotter climate.

In an interagency meeting Monday, NDRRMC Director and Civil Defense Administrator Undersecretary Ariel Nepomuceno emphasized the need for harmonization of interventions of concerned government agencies for the El Niño phenomenon.

The proposed El Nino team will be led by the Department of the Interior and Local Government with the Office of Civil Defense as co-chair, the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Health (DOH), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), National Irrigation Administration (NIA), and Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) as members.

A support team has also been formed composed of the Presidential Communications Office (PCO), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), National Water Resources Board (NWRB), and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

According to the forecast of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, El Niño may start as early as June to August this year with chances of increasing severity toward the first quarter of 2024.

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In the forecast, provinces including Abra, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, Metro Manila, Apayao, Mountain Province, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Spratlys Islands, Batanes, Cagayan, Isabela, Quirino, Nueva Ecija, Occidental and Oriental Mindoro, Pampanga, Tarlac, Zambales, Laguna,

Rizal, Quezon, Spratlys Islands, Albay, and Guimaras may experience below-normal rainfall conditions.

Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, chairperson of the House of Representatives committee on ways and means, meanwhile has called on the Local Water Utilities Administration to “be more aggressive in exercising its power to monitor local water districts for performance and to consolidate them for public welfare.”

“An effective LWUA is critical to dealing with the water crisis, because they supervise the hundreds of water districts that provide for urban and suburban populations outside Mega Manila,” Salceda said.

Salceda added “they also have financing powers – so they can incentivize consolidation through favorable financing terms and performance reviews.”

Salceda also said he supports new LWUA administrator Vince Revil’s pronouncement to exert  efforts to conduct a national water inventory, and the P20 billion the Patubig sa Buong Bayan at Mamamayan project. “ But to ensure that operations and management of new water systems are efficient, we really need to consolidate water districts that are inefficient or non-operational,” he said.

Salceda also appealed to Revil to exercise that agency’s mandate to hold water districts to account more.

Salceda estimates that some 300 water districts are currently non-operational or barely operational, meaning that the areas they serve do not have functioning central water systems.

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