With proper planning and risk insurance, the impact of natural calamities can be minimized

MANILA - When typhoon Kiko hit the Philippines in early August 2009, it caused eight landslides in various parts of the country that killed 15 people and forced the government to evacuate over 2,200 families.

It also caused damages to infrastructure in the provinces of Benguet, Tarlac, Zambales and Pampanga estimated at P161 million, and damages to agriculture nationwide estimated at about P18.8 million.

But it is, by no means, the worst disaster the Philippines has ever experienced.

Resource drain

Death and damages caused by disasters are, in fact, so common here that the amount of damages wrought by Kiko pales compared to that caused by other previous cyclones.

The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 typhoons in a year, and since it is seated in the Pacific ring of fire, it is also prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The country is, in fact, still reeling from the devastation wrought by Typhoon Frank to agriculture and infrastructure in the Visayan provinces, which totaled a whopping P13.3 billion.

With climate change thrown into the equation, scientists predict that storms and droughts would become more severe and would occur more often.

Disasters are a huge strain to the country’s meager resources and a huge burden to tax payers. The government’s usual response whenever calamities strike is to release calamity funds.

The country usually experiences P15-billion worth of damage from typhoons a year,
Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Anthony Golez said in a Malacañang statement made shortly after Typhoon Frank hit the Philippines.

For Frank alone, he said the damage already amounted to P12 billion. This was just halfway through 2008, Golez stressed at the time.

This year’s typhoon Kiko prompted the national government to release P8 million from the calamity funds to assist affected families. This, of course, is a tiny fraction of the total budget needed to supply food and medicine and to repair broken bridges and roads.

Panay island, which was hit most by typhoon Frank, requested for P15 billion for rehabilitation. The national government reduced this to P10 billion, then to P8 billion because of the economic slump.

Insuring lives

But there are more creative ways by which local government officials can minimize the disruptive impact of natural calamities. These were discussed at the 13th Asia Pacific Policy Forum on Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction held Thursday.

One way, according to environment undersecretary Mary Ann Lucille Sering is by getting insurance.

Disaster risk reduction, according to Sering, could be the next economic spark plug for insurance providers, with the most vulnerable communities as the new pool of clients.

Sering said that the local insurance industry and the public sector can help cushion the impact of climate change-related disasters to communities by providing them with different coverage schemes at affordable premiums.

The idea is not actually new. Parties in the United Nations Conference on Climate Change highlighted insurance as a risk transfer system in the 2007 Bali Action Plan. But while developing countries such as India, Ethiopia and Mongolia have tried their hand into this mechanism, the Philippines is yet to explore its potential.

“Unfortunately, the Government Service Insurance System is very traditional in their approach,” Sering told forum participants.

The study “Adaptation to Climate Change: Linking Disaster Risk Reduction and Insurance,” shows some insurance designs that local risk insurers can follow.

Drought-ridden Ethiopia, for example, has weather index-based micro-insurance, where farmers receive payment if rain does not come within the expected period. This gives them financial protection following possible setbacks due to crops damaged by the drought.    
 
Insurance also comes in handy for local communities which are cash-strapped but are prone to disasters, as payouts enable them to repair ravaged infrastructure immediately.    

Local solutions

Insurance, however, is but one of the new-fangled options for disaster risk reduction.

For instance, adaptation to climate change is increasingly becoming the thrust of local communities in developing countries.

Prof. Roger Jones, coordinating lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, explained that there are two-way approaches to adaptation – it could be top-down, where the government will set the plan and the pace, or bottom-up, where community-based efforts are replicated on a national and even worldwide level.

Adaptation approaches, he said, should be framed within the needs and experiences of respective countries.

“What do we already know with the climate? There are typhoons for the Philippines, forest fires in Australia,” he illustrated, adding that given this knowledge, stakeholders should “plan horizons –do we need large infrastructure, bridges, airports or to make small changes first?”

Australian funding

Land use planning with the help of geohazard maps is one way by which the Philippines can adapt. And the good news is that the country recently received funding from the Australian government, to the tune of P304.5 million, towards this end.

Disaster risk reduction, adaptation, and community-based responses are built into the Australian grant, which will be implemented from 2006-2011. The grant includes P123 million for three new projects, which would bring local management and strategies to the fore of national decision-making:

a.    P87.5 million for developing land use plans in municipalities and cities which would lessen the exposure of communities to natural hazards—to be implemented by the National Economic Development Authority and the United Nations Development Programme;
b.    P19 million for documenting coping mechanisms employed by local communities and increasing information dissemination on best practices, to be done by Oxfam; and
c.    P16.5 million in technical assistance to the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority for updating geospatial information.

“Disaster fatigue”

Alberto Lim, executive director of the Makati Business Club and chair of the Corporate Network for Disaster Response (CDR), sounded off about the need to also review and duplicate best practices in disaster responses across the country efficiently. This is because while money does come in, companies and institutions do suffer from “disaster fatigue.”

He noted that CDR has also conducted programs such as geohazard mapping in Quezon and youth-focused preparedness. He stressed however that the public and private sectors need to work hand-in-hand in maximizing existing and new facilities for disaster risk reduction as there is an urgency to produce more long-term results.

Sering stressed that LGUs should be more conscious of the tools available to them, whether they are provided by the government or by private donors. For one, geohazard maps have been given to LGUs, but landslides are yet to be averted, or their effects, diminished.  

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda pointed out that disaster risk reduction would not be an afterthought for local officials if they embed it in their local development plan and tie it with the fulfillment of millennium development goals.

In the case of Albay, the provincial government mobilized local leaders to evacuate families at the earliest signs of a typhoon, and retrofitted evacuation centers to be schools.

“Schools have always served as evacuation centers. Why can’t evacuation centers be schools?” he said.

Sen. Loren Legarda, meanwhile, said that local government units should also stick to the tried-and-tested formula of implementing laws in order to offset the social and economic costs of disasters.

“We have a 10-year-old Clean Air Act, but do we have clean air?” she asked. “The challenge for all of us is to translate the laws enacted by Congress [into programs].”