Foundation eyes 1,000 automated weather stations across PH
Efforts to develop programs and services that will help agricultural communities have received a big boost with the La Filipina Uy Gongco group signing up to support WeatherPhilippines Foundation Inc. (WPF).
WPF, the Aboitiz group’s biggest CSR initiative, aims at becoming the country’s top private weather information and content provider.
The foundation intends to deliver critical and accurate weather forecasts appropriate to smaller community (localized data), with the hope of improving nationwide disaster preparedness, and timely response to variable weather conditions, says Dave V. Valeriano, WPF vice president and general manager.
Valeriano says WPF is leveraging the Aboitiz Group’s resources, network and the technical expertise of partner MeteoGroup—a London-based private weather business with offices across the globe—to have about 1,000 automated weather stations (AWS) or devices installed across the Philippines.
Of the 777 automated weather stations (AWS) deployed nationwide by WPF as of last May, 124 are located in Mindanao. These are either installed at Davao Light and SM sites or priority meteorological sites under the care of partner local government units (LGUs).
One such partner is the Municipal Hall of Lebak, Sultan Kudarat, where the community harnessed the technology as they faced the effects of the recent El Niño.
Myla Cañete, Lebak’s disaster risk reduction management officer, says the town was able to mitigate the effects of El Niño with an aggressive cloud-seeding operation through weather-data-driven collaboration with the regional government.
Cañete says AWS-generated data enhanced Lebak’s capacity to provide the cloud seeding team with an accurate forecast on wind direction and wind speed. She says, the five-day forecast enabled the close monitoring of Lebak’s skies for “seedable” clouds, and to determine the possibility of rain.
“We are pleased with the entry of the La Filipina Uy Gongco group as the newest platinum sponsor of WeatherPhilippines,” WPF’s Valeriano says. “(This) will help the foundation’s capability to attain our shared vision of creating a #WeatherWiser nation.”
Creating a #WeatherWiser nation is WPF’s ongoing campaign to optimize weather knowledge for socio-economic growth and sustainable development through technology, partnerships, and engagements.
La Filipina Uy Gongco is an owner-operator of agricultural estates such as hog and sugar cane farms, sugar mill and corn mill. It has interests in a hotel, bank, shopping mall and real estate development projects.
As platinum sponsor of WPF, La Filipina Uy Gongco has pledged to donate about P35 million over the next 10 years to enable the foundation to sustain its operations and knowledge-sharing initiatives.
Other WPF platinum sponsors are Ayala Corp., International Container Terminal Services Inc., LBC Express Inc., Nickel Asia Corp., SM Investments Corp., Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc., Union Bank of the Philippines, and the Aboitiz Foundation. Ronnel Domingo
