The Philippines: Irresoluble Problem of Floods

by the Resource Recovery Movement, Center for Human and Society

In the recent period, floods plagued a considerable area, encompassing broad sections across the globe.

Heavy recent flooding in India and Serbia, China, Japan among many other areas around the world

With heavy inundations such as these that can often kill with their own sheer power by drowning, is there still a need for the water to be poisonous, toxic and very much hazardous to health or even deadly enough to kill?

In the Philippines, not the Secretary of the Department of National Defense now a bit too advanced in years unlike many past defense secretaries who braved calamities and got wet and dirty on the ground, but the helmsman of the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) is a mite too busy nowadays. The chief is extremely tied up in many corners that at most times the poor disaster response executive does not even know where to plant his foot next.

Yet it is an inescapable Catch-22 situation. If the new chief of the Philippine Office of Civil Defense and the Secretariat of the NDRRMC follows the examples of his bosses, just stay put and let things unveil all by themselves, the people will be angry.

If the NDRRMC head appears very mobile and busy, the people are still not going to be appeased. They will be just as angry anyway. No option is a better one, even that of balancing between not doing anything and making an effort to be hyperactive.

A senseless new tragedy most recently hit the Philippines - not so much a tragedy as thousands of helpless citizens getting killed.

The powerful storm caused a maritime vessel Maharlika II in Cebu to drown, leaving as many as more than one hundred casualties. As of this writing, 70 persons are missing due to the tragedy.

All over the nation: Floods and landslides, destroyed crops, dead farm animals

ruined houses, buildings, vital installations and much more other forms of damage

A really sensible government will take every means to prevent people from getting caught in floods. Sadly enough, this is never true in the Philippines and not in many places around the world. They will simply snort: Expensive solutions! No one specially me needs them! So they let whole communities drown or suffer getting submerged waist or neck-deep in murky, life-threatening floodwaters

Both children and adults brave the waters in floods. No one puts the fear in their hearts that doing so is extremely dangerous to their health and the effects may only be felt after a long time.

 

Posted Under Themes:

#MarioPH

#Fong-Wong #Fung-Wong

#Flood

#Philippines

#FloodControl

#RescuePH

#Rescue

Read more from here.

On the Tacloban Declaration: A simple message with hint / clue for ‪#‎ASEM‬ Manila

The ‪#‎Tacloban‬ experience of ‪#‎Haiyan‬ / ‪#‎Yolanda‬ is both challenging and fraught with danger. Within the context of a world community slowly becoming more aware of the diminishing validity of certain combines that still keep going through the very same motions of guiding and leading this planet's population into their perceived state of well being.

It cannot be overemphasized that the new normal will have to incorporate the very resources with which to nourish disaster preparedness, risk prevention and response. In the Tacloban experience, many governments opted to donate directly to a lot of towns outside of Tacloban and if possible, in an incognito manner whereas it is public knowledge in that area that more or less tens of thousands died in the Tacloban tragedy and only measly 20s or 50s or a few hundreds perished in the other places.

Months after #Yolanda, the stench of death still hang in the air, no one will be able to contest that. How many in Tacloban and in the provinces hit got their lives back really in terms of power supply, food, children being able to go back to their classrooms, people getting back to their livelihood... a terrible statistic to swallow but the reality is there, glaring and accusing.

For some, the acceptable assumption was to provide succor to those people that were supposedly left behind in the gargantuan efforts to resuscitate Tacloban. However the resulting product was the opposite of those altruistic intentions. When fires started happening in the United Nations donated tent homes, the predicament of a people who were said to be receiving the lion's share of disaster and humanitarian aid became exposed to one and all. Thousands still living in tents long after the calamity and to be honest, not only the fires but scores of other causes kept killing the survivors. It was not a blessing for some to have survived. In the throes of death post-disaster, they should have been thinking what a curse to have lived through all that bedlam and sham.

All the fanfare about construction projects getting bogged down by corruption, complaints at the highest levels by rehabilitation managers of the stiff resistance of key national leaders to pushing the disaster-hit locality towards fuller and better recovery was not just hype. These were real circumstance that were happening as if the nonchalance and cold treatment of the early days of post-#Yolanda were not enough.

That the Taclobanons have not really been truly helped, but have instead become the butt of too much aggrandizement and enrichment by some sectors, the shameless public infighting within the public sector, the frustration of many who have the real desire to be of help not out of great and grand ideas but out of new approaches and ways of dealing with old problems that have never been fully understood is the loss of the world community.

In the end, the cliches and all the damned rhetoric will apply, indeed it will not just be #Haiyan, or other much vaunted mega disasters like Japan's. But cliches and rhetoric do not help and lighten the day for the victims in Tacloban and elsewhere that there was real catastrophe and not sheer descriptions in paper and oratory.

What it cannot be helped to be preached is that with the people of the world shifting their own personal paradigms, isn't it clear enough that the leaders attending ASEM and future other events like this try at least to go with the flow?

For true leaders at heart, it is really sad to be clearly left behind, albeit still talking and writing voluminous diaries of things past and future, holding on to spoils and many other things unpleasant. That's the danger.

Shifting gears and getting hands really, really dirty might get the rehabilitation and resurging development in Tacloban clearly going in more truer terms. That is the real challenge and heaven not forbid, it might even cleanse some soul...

Clue #1:

A Philippine scientist and a Russian counterpart argued who among them had the lowest salary and worst treatment in the world.

Clue #2 - 400:

Please find out for yourself, it might just be right beside you.

Repost - Forecasting

The Philippines:

Forecasting with confidence

Self-doubting prophecy

For nearly five years ago today, it was suggested to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) to enhance its satellite capability instead of simply getting hand-me-down issuances from UN OOSA (United Nations Outer Space Affairs and the NOAA (United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the other geospatial information and intelligence agencies all over the world.

At a certain point in time around the period of the occurrence of the devastation by tropical storm Ketsana (Ondoy) in the Philippines, the PAGASA was clamoring for the purchase and installation of its Doppler radar system, an outmoded and unreliable system for weather forecasting.

In 2010, all throughout the government circuit, the company of Mr. Philip King called AAA, went on a lecture-presentation effort to sell the sensing and image capture technology developed by a Malaysian scientist and technology specialist who was also engaged in a similar high technology, extensive venture for the government of Canada, among other countries.

Had the Department of Science and Technology considered using a network of sensing stations with clear-photo capture capability on a 1-camera-per-station (or possibly a cluster of cameras), weather forecasting in the country, aided with charity hand-outs from NOAA, UNOOSA, the European Union, among other satellite capable agencies, will definitely be more precise at the same time vivid and viewable in real time.

It was foreseen in this site that absolutely nothing will be allowed by Typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy) to block its path. As early as the morning of the raging of this typhoon that PAGASA decided to merely attribute the powerful rains and killer floods to monsoons, it was already the consensus among the advocates that started this site that many people will die by Ketsana (Ondoy). More > >

Global Geohazard System (extended discussion)

Environmental Risks, Forecasting

 View in pdf form or download file from here

Supersites (eathquake sites) of the world scientific community has a interactive map showing the areas where big earthquakes are predicted to happen. Click the image to visit Supersites:

The forecast of members of the scientific community that massive casualties will be experienced in the next big disaster that will hit the Philippines is accurate.

One of the greatest concerns is that the target of the next big one is the Philippines national capital region: Metropolitan Manila.

With a nighttime population of more than 12 million, in daytime Metro Manila has a population volume of nearly 20 million or higher during peak seasons.

Metro Manila is also home to many international agency headquarters such as the Asian Development Bank and all the home offices of foreign embassies are located in the capital region.

Too many factors can account for the exactitude and correctness of the prediction of massive casualties – not the least amongst them, the lack of state-of-the-art data and information ferreting equipment. Scientific expertise and knowhow in the use of new technology for tidal wave, weather, seismic event, volcanic eruption forecasting is not necessarily lacking in the Philippines.

However, it must be conceded that the Philippines does not have enough or adequate experience in handling satellite launch, management and earth observation operations.

To compound the problem ten-folds it is learned through the media, that intervention by interest groups in purveying vital data to the public about earthquake faults, the shameless impunity with which big companies are shunting regulations against building big structures on top of sites highly vulnerable to earthquake faults, also compound the danger of the Philippines suffering a large multitude of people getting killed during a big disaster incident involving the shaking of the Marikina West Valley Fault System.  More > >

Forecasting with more confidence, issuing warning

By saner standards, in a span of less than two years, it is possible to modernize the PAGASA, PHIVOLCS of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the attached agencies of Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) that are now supposedly doing hazards mapping to increase their capacity to be able to tell the public with adequate confidence about the best course of action to take before another devastating calamity threatens their personal and loved ones' safety and avoid the tremendous loss of lives that recently happened with Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda).

The article below shows how the unconfident forecasting about the super typhoon may no longer be done in the future so as not to let a forecastable calamity unnecessary claim the precious lives of thousands of victims - Filipinos or foreigners alike. It is believed that the perhaps, one thing that could have saved the lives of many of the victims was trust. A solid trust in the forecasts and faith in the public warnings.

Helpless casualties

Before there could have been trust from the people, there should have been real certainty and conviction in the first place. That is what needs to be drummed into the people in our weather bureau and the earthquake sensing, among other forecasting agencies in the government. After all, with the money the taxpayers are paying to sustain them and give them enormous opportunities for self-growth through numerous continuing education benefits, foreign travels, among many other privileges the people in these agencies should be paying back the public with at least better and more sincere service.

Without the modernization, it is sad to issue the advance forecast, that we're all really dead.

The Story of the Haiyan Forecasting Fiasco

Over the more than a week we have been engaged in preparing a paper on the subject of Philippine forecasting with higher level of confidence. The paper is due to be published soon. Due to the timid and shy forecasting by the Philippine government, thousands of helpless victims lay dead floating in the seas off Tacloban and other towns as well as littering the streets in many areas devastated by Super Typhoon #Haiyan codenamed #Yolanda.

Below are samples of the Severe Storm Warnings by the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) that were prepared with the data generated by the Philippine weather bureau:

Thursday, 07 November 2013 00:57

NDRRMC Update and Advisory re Severe Weather Bulletin for Typhoon YOLANDA (HAIYAN) Attachments: [issued on 09 November 2013, 3:30PM] 256 Kb NDRRMC Advisory re SWB No.12 (FINAL) for Typhoon YOLANDA (HAIYAN) [issued on 09 November 2013, 3:30PM] 265 Kb NDRRMC Update re SWB No.11 for Typhoon YOLANDA (HAIYAN) [issued on 09 November 2013, 11:00AM] 279 Kb NDRRMC Advisory re SWB No.11 for Typhoon YOLANDA (HAIYAN) [issued on 09 November 2013, 11:00AM] 289 Kb NDRRMC Update re SWB No.10 for Typhoon YOLANDA (HAIYAN) [issued on 09 November 2013, 5:00AM] 924 Kb NDRRMC Advisory re SWB No.10 for Typhoon YOLANDA (HAIYAN) [issued on 09 November 2013, 5:00AM] 964 Kb NDRRMC Update re SWB No.9 for Typhoon YOLANDA (HAIYAN) [issued on 08 November 2013, 11:00PM] 283 Kb NDRRMC Advisory re SWB No.9 for Typhoon YOLANDA (HAIYAN) [issued on 08 November 2013, 11:00PM] 294 Kb NDRRMC Update re SWB No.8 for Typhoon YOLANDA (HAIYAN) [issued on 08 November 2013, 5:00PM] 400 Kb NDRRMC Advisory re SWB No.8 for Typhoon YOLANDA (HAIYAN) [issued on 08 November 2013, 5:00PM] 417 Kb NDRRMC Update re SWB No.7 for Typhoon YOLANDA (HAIYAN) [issued on 08 November 2013, 11:00AM] 390 Kb NDRRMC Advisory re SWB No.7 for Typhoon YOLANDA (HAIYAN) [issued on 08 November 2013, 11:00AM] 387 Kb NDRRMC Update re SWB No.6 for Typhoon YOLANDA (HAIYAN) [issued on 08 November 2013, 5:00AM] 1202 Kb NDRRMC Update re SWB No.6 for Typhoon YOLANDA (HAIYAN)

Letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon

Open Letter to the United Nations

November 21, 2013

HIS EXCELLENCY
BAN KI MOON
Secretary General
The United Nations
UN Headquarters
First Avenue at 46th Street
New York, NY 10017
USA


Dearest Secretary General Ban:

Our warmest greetings!

Kindly please understand, I had seriously debated on whether to send this communication to you or not. I decided on going through with it since I believe that the result would turn out for the better. Nothing that transpired in the past has diminished nor degraded my respect and love for the UN. I have no intention in demeaning anyone's position or creating anything negative between myself, my group and the UN even if that can't be helped, but this has to be done, and I shall humbly embrace the consequences of my act.

After tropical cyclone Haiyan aka Yolanda, not a surprising lot of relief organizations are now helping in Tacloban, in the towns of Leyte, Samar, Cebu, Bohol, Capiz, Aklan, even parts of Mindanao. Entire states committed volumes of resources to come to the aid of the Philippines. As published in the media, the Philippine Government stated that the affected areas include nine (9) Regions in the entire archipelago that consists of seventeen (17) Regions, with three (3) Regions being small and newly created divisions that were fairly recently separated by Special Law (CAR, ARMM and Caraga). It is presumed that all of these relief organizations and representatives of their own countries are operating out of the goodness of heart and the desire to be of sincere help to the people of Tacloban City, the municipalities of Leyte, Samar, Cebu, Bohol, Capiz, Aklan, portions of Mindanao. Although some are at a loss to convince others of their intentions: "just wait... in due time we are convince you of our legitimaty."

Some of these relief organizations are part and parcel of the United Nations organization. Be that as it may, most or all of these organizations anyway, under the principle that all states are municipalities embraced by the founding charter of League of Nations that is now the United Nations, are governed under the auspices of the august body that you head. The people of Tacloban City and the rest of the areas affected by the tropical cyclone Haiyan aka Yolanda, are grateful for all of the help of the UN, the honorable member states under it and the public sector as well as private relief groups that are now helping.

Now allow us to come to the point of this letter. Nearly five (5) years ago today, after tropical cyclone Ondoy struck, we increased the level and pace of our twenty one (21) year advocacy for disaster preparedness.  At the time, we painfully discovered what we, and many of us, have known all along, that the best kind of preparedness is foreknowledge and forewarning of events that will befall upon us. In the beginning, we began simply with the goading of Philippines Department of National Defense (DND) to adopt a modernized system incorporating the Geographic Information System (GIS) into the framework of its operations. That was in 1991-1992. On record, our paper was even used by the DND to brief Malacanang (at the time, headed by the late Madame Corazon Cojuangco Aquino).

Among the other relevant actions we undertook are the following:

1. We pushed for the creation of Philippines public sector satellite information management agency