Are we prepared for a big disaster?
As people around the world is talking about the changes in temperature, flooding in the desert Arab countries, and the continuing rise of sea level due to melting of ice berg, the Philippines will be among the heaviest affected in the coming years.
And yes there proofs that can be told about these effects of climate change in the lives of many Filipinos, especially those living in the coastal areas and low lying communities.
The fishing grounds of Bulakan, Bulacan, are constantly submerged under water for days even in summer season, which did not happen in the past.
The residents of Barangay Taliptip, Bulakan recalled how the government tried to save the community roads by elevating them several times. As the roads elevates, the houses do as well.
But the water level continues to overcome the height of the roads, so as the flooding on the residents’ floors.
If 15 years ago residents of Taliptip, and in the nearby barangay of Bambang, could walk the streets with knee or thigh-level water during high tide, today it usually went up to five feet deep.
In recent months, schools were ordered to suspend face-to-face classes not because of heavy rains but due to high temperature which reaches 42℃, considered by PAGASA a dangerous level in heat index. Heat index is the measure of the temperature that a person feels which is different from the actual air temperature.
Likewise, we witnessed how strong the “new breed” of typhoon brought havoc in many provinces, destroying crops and properties and lives. The country is being visited by at least 20-25 typhoons annually where some a considered super typhoon.
To match the new strength of typhoon passing our country, a new signal was installed, and that is Signal Number 5 which is to indicate extremely strong winds of more than 220 km/h. Signal No. 5 also “warns of the possibility of big waves and storm surges in affected coastal areas,” PAGASA said.
But the threat of bigger disaster, more destructive calamities are yet to come says Gustavo Gonzalez, the United Nations coordinator based in the Philippines.
Hear’s to watch. According to the UN official, the Philippines is among the most vulnerable country in the world to natural hazards which are becoming more and more destructive due to climate change.
Considering that the Philippines is within the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a tectonic belt of volcanoes and earthquakes, and to the fact that it has many coastal communities and cities, the country will always be extremely vulnerable to intense weather events and natural hazards.
As more super typhoons are being expected caused by the warming of the seas in the Southeast Asian Region due to climate change, the UN is currently been working with line agencies discussing the preparation to be undertaken to address the wide range of disasters.
The UN official noted that there are around 20 active volcanoes across the country, and according to experts, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake at any time can be expected.
But the matter on climate change is no new matter at all among Filipinos. The national government has adequately giving information and seminars on risk reduction and management in all levels of government agencies and schools.
What the local governments need to do is to act now. Apply all what they all learned from those seminars: create a mitigation plan to minimize the effect of calamities that are expected to come anytime without warning, identify key persons as leaders, identify the evacuation areas, get inventory of logistics, and more.
Climate change is real. Climate change is already here, it is making its presence felt. It is only a question of “when will it strike big?”
