1,700 cities join UN disaster resiliency effort

MANILA, Philippines - More than 1,700 cities have joined a United Nations effort to make cities resilient to disasters.

Data released by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction showed that a total of 1,760 cities in 98 countries have joined the Making Cities Resilient Campaign.

The new figure represents areas populated by about 700 million. The number of participating cities increased from more than 1,600 last year and about 1,200 in 2012.

A total of 113 Philippine local government units are part of the campaign, which was launched in 2010 to address issues of local governance and urban risk.

The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction said 23 cities have been declared “role models” because of their innovations and good practices in managing risks.

Three areas in the Philippines – Makati, Albay and San Francisco town in Cebu – have been declared role models, the UN campaign’s website showed.

Makati was lauded for its efforts to apply the 10 essentials for making cities resilient.

These essentials are putting in place organizations to understand and reduce disaster risk, assigning budget for disaster risk reduction, maintaining updated data on hazards and vulnerabilities, investing and maintaining critical infrastructure like flood drainage, assessing the safety of schools and health facilities, applying and enforcing realistic risk-compliant regulations and land use planning principles, ensuring education programs on risk reduction are in place, protecting ecosystems and natural buffers to mitigate floods, installing early warning systems, and ensuring that the needs of affected population are placed at the center of reconstruction efforts.

Albay was credited for an “institutionalized innovative disaster risk management” while San Francisco municipality was lauded for its grassroots disaster management.

The Making Cities Resilient Campaign entered its second phase in 2012 and is now focusing on implementation support, city-to-city learning and cooperation, local action planning and monitoring of progress in cities.

“In addition, the campaign will continue to advocate widespread commitment by local governments to build resilience to disasters and increased support by national governments to cities for the purpose of strengthening local capacities,” the campaign’s website read.

The Philippines has been regarded as one of the countries most vulnerable to disasters.

It ranked third among global disaster risk hotspots in the 2012 World Risk Report, with more than half of its population exposed to natural hazards.

About 20 tropical cyclones, five to seven of which are destructive, enter the Philippines every year.

Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles urged the government yesterday to build communities that are disaster-resilient by constructing houses that are not only strong against extreme weather conditions but are modular and highly portable.

He said the technology is readily available and is now being piloted in Tanauan, Leyte by Veerhuis Bowsystemen B.V., a Dutch firm that developed state-of-the-art proprietary technology for the manufacture of steel framed, permanent and prefabricated housing.

He said the company also makes durable steel-framed tents to serve as temporary shelters for those displaced by natural disasters.             – With Jess Diaz