LGUs urged: Adopt disaster risk reduction methods

CEBU, Philippines - Local government units are urged to integrate disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) tools in their respective land use and development plans to ensure that progress will not be stunted due to weather-related occurrences.

Senator Loren Legarda, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Climate Change, issued the statement following the United Nations’ 2011 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction that more people are protected from disasters globally, but the loss in economic assets have risen due to the same disasters.

“The risk of being killed by a cyclone or flood is lower today than it was 20 years ago. However, economic losses due to disasters continue to be in an upward trend and seriously threaten the economies of low-income countries,” Legarda said.

Legarda said that while LGUs have improved disaster preparedness measures such as preemptive evacuation, population and assets are still located in hazard-prone areas, a clear manifestation of poorly managed urbanization.

She cited latest figures from the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board which show that many cities and municipalities prepare their respective Comprehensive Land Use Plans or CLUPs, and most of these have not integrated the tools of DRR and CCA, except for the simple hazard maps, in delineating the use of land resource in their jurisdiction.

Legarda said that at present, there are 340 LGUs that still need to update their CLUPs. Most of these are third and sixth class municipalities that have low income but have high vulnerability to various types of disasters. In addition, 23 provinces also need to develop their Physical Framework Plans.

“For our LGUs, the authority and system of comprehensive land use planning provides the opportunity for the integration of DRR and CCA. With the advent of the Disaster Risk Reduction Management Act of 2010 and the Climate Change Act of 2009, the time and institutions are ripe for this kind of integration,” she stressed. 

CLUPs may mention that a certain locality is flood-prone but there is no detailed exposure and vulnerability assessment. Information such as the severity, frequency and magnitude of previous damage and losses are crucial in identifying robust interventions in the LGU’s CLUP and development plans.

Legarda called on LGUs to institutionalize DRR and CCA in the local planning process and also urge the National Economic Development Authority and the Department of Interior and Local Government, together with Office of Civil Defense and the Climate Change Commission, to assist LGUs in this process. —(FREEMAN)