Rising above ‘Yolanda’
How best to rise above Super typhoon “Yolanda’s” aftermath and how to prepare for more climate change and other risks are concerns that we must address now.
Seeking some answers to these questions, the Climate Change and Sustainable Development Committee of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), together with the MAP Agri-Business and Countryside Development Foundation, Private Sector Disaster Management Network, and EARTH Institute Asia organized a special forum recently, with main speakers from the Ocean Security International (OSI).
OSI is a global nongovernmental organization that works on issues impacting the world’s oceans and coastal areas. It aims to fund programs and projects on or related to the protection of oceans and coastal areas; promote and disseminate innovative strategies and best practices on it; provide a forum for addressing economic, environmental, food security, and other issues relating to oceans and coastal areas; and use informal diplomacy to help address the issues when formal diplomacy is inadequate.
South-South cooperation
OSI is based in Colombia with offices being established in the Philippines, Japan, Singapore, and a few other countries. OSI’s Chair and Executive Director Dr. Viktor Sebek, a specialist in international environmental law and law of the sea, has been working on projects covering the Philippines since the 1990s. After Yolanda hit the country, he immediately came with his management team to see how OSI could help. At the forum, OSI’s Director for Business Development Dawie Crous, Chair of New Art Investment Holding in South Africa, announced the creation of the OSI Yolanda Fund.
One challenge to OSI and others that are offering help to the Philippines is to ensure that their support will not only help alleviate current suffering in the damaged areas, but also contribute some lasting solutions as Filipinos face more risks from climate change and other sources.
Another challenge to OSI is to enhance South-South cooperation in applying innovative solutions developed by the technologists in the South-South countries and in setting up sustainable South-South enterprises that can provide solutions to the world.
That phrase “South-South cooperation” may sound new to us in the Philippines. But I am pleasantly surprised to observe the high level of interest in it in Colombia. The phrase even appears in a corporate advertisement in the airport in Bogota! The first “South” refers to the countries in South America and the second “South” to the countries in South Asia. Although OSI’s work has gone beyond these southern countries, it still gives priority attention to improving South-South cooperation.
Some potential solutions were presented at the forum to quickly assess their applicability in the Philippines so that the OSI Yolanda Fund could be used to help apply them if they are needed.
To view the solutions in the risk context, I presented first the Integrated Risk Communication, Assessment, and Management (Ircam) model that I developed for addressing risks, such as, storm surges.
Risk communication is the first and continuing process. But, often, it is the first to bog down in an emergency as it did in the Yolanda case and in many other disastrous events, including the earthquake that hit Christchurch, New Zealand, as I learned during my recent visit there and meetings with leaders on emergency preparedness.
Risk communication includes risk perception, which influences the important variable “willingness to respond” of people to warnings and other emergency directives. In the Yolanda case, the perception of risk from storm surge was most probably low because the term is unfamiliar to the people in Tacloban and other areas hit by the storm surge. A good risk communication program, which must now be put in place everywhere in the country, must include making risk-related terms understandable to the people.
Communication systems
Marine biologist-physical oceanographer Jaime Orejarena, OSI’s Environmental Adviser, presented at the forum the Emergency Warning System (EWS) developed in Colombia, which integrates various types of communication systems across time, function, and domain so that decision makers, e.g., local government units, can take appropriate actions before, during, and after risky events.
Another solution on risk communication presented at the forum was Tudlo, the homegrown application for cell phones, which was developed by Kristoffer Vincent Loremia and his team of young computer specialists in Cebu. Tudlo provides critical information to individuals and organizations before, during, and after a risky event. It is a 2013 finalist of PLDT’s incubator program IdeaSpace and of IBM’s SmartCamp. It is also the 2013 Young Innovator Competition Winner of the ITU Telecom World.
Tudlo is being piloted in Albay in partnership with Smart. Although it still requires further refinements, Tudlo may already be downloaded as a free app for cell phones. It will be good if its users will help improve it by submitting to us their additional information needs so that those could be incorporated in the app. Tudlo’s refinement is being covered by a modest grant from Microsoft. It now needs investors for commercialization.
Investors could combine Tudlo and the Colombian EWS in setting up a sustainable enterprise that can provide a comprehensive risk management system for individuals, organizations, and communities in the Philippines, in Colombia, and in other countries. This is an example of South-South cooperation in sustainable enterprise development.
Risk assessment, the second process in the Ircam model, must be conducted by technical specialists, especially if there are many competing priorities and limited resources. Some risks are more important than others in terms of likelihood or probability of occurrence, or of adverse consequence, or together, in terms of expected value—the probability times the adverse consequence.
We did not discuss risk assessment at the forum. But I strongly suggest that we conduct this process now per locality in the Philippines, especially in areas that are highly vulnerable to climate change risks. The 2012 Philippine Exposure Map, which was developed by TOWNS Awardee Dr. Laura David of the UP Marine Science Institute and her team, already identifies the climate change risks affecting each area in the country. This map is in the book “Climate Change Adaptation: Best Practices in the Philippines,” which I developed and edited for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. It may be downloaded from the DENR website—www.denr.gov.ph.
The Climate Change Commission has initiated the conduct of climate change vulnerability assessments of some sites, with support from the Global Green Growth Initiative (GGGI). Such type of assessment must now be expanded to cover other areas with the help of specialists on risks and related disciplines. The results of this work, which should provide the risk profile of a location, must be stored and presented in a common platform, e.g., Google maps, so that they may be shared with others and easily updated.
Risk assessment
Risk management, the third process, should really start from the result of risk assessment. A well-done risk assessment helps greatly in disaster risk reduction and emergency preparedness. Although risk assessment of Tacloban and the other sites affected by Yolanda was not done prior to the storm surge, the result of the surge clearly shows the urgent need for potable water, among others. OSI partner Alexander Cuartas, who has directed a program on safer water in Colombia, presented a technology that applies inverse osmosis in a modular manner for treating marine and polluted water in order to reach a desired capacity level. He also introduced a mobile water desalination system that can be deployed rapidly.
Another risk management solution is on constructing houses, school buildings, and other basic structures. OSI has identified two technologies—interlocking technique and cross-laminated timber—for building eco-friendly, recyclable, and sustainable wooden structures within a short time.
OSI Board Member Tom Wedgwood, a direct descendant of Josiah Wedgwood of the famous Wedgwood ceramics, not only presented this solution but also offered to donate a school, which needs a local architect to volunteer to design for a priority site.
Wood may be in short supply in the Philippines now, but Tom mentioned the availability of Russian pinewood at a low cost. Soon, I hope we can produce more bamboo and other types of indigenous wood so that, using the two technologies above with the help of our local designers and craftsmen, we can set up sustainable enterprises that can build structures for our needs, as well as for those of other countries.
Another technology that OSI is evaluating is the portable EARTH Aquavermiponics (AVP) technology, a Shell 2012 Green Enterprise awardee developed by Deo Magbal Jr. The EARTH AVP provides a fish farm, a vegetable farm, and a vermicomposting farm—all on one square meter of footprint. It can produce fish and vegetables even in a devastated area.
More local and foreign support and solutions may be forthcoming to help us rise above Yolanda’s aftermath and face other risks.
One issue is absorptive capacity to implement applicable solutions. But there is surely life after a disaster and that life can be better if we can see and act on the economic and other opportunities in the offered solutions.
(The author chairs MAP’s Climate Change and Sustainable Development Committee and sits in OSI’s Scientific and Academic Advisory Board. She is in Colombia to fulfill a prior speaking commitment to OSI and the University of Javeriana, the top Jesuit university in Bogota, which is strengthening its risk management program. Feedback at [email protected] and [email protected]. For previous articles, please visit www.map.org.ph)
