Whether it鈥檚 prescient or not, 2012 as the Year of the Blue Water Dragon indicates that more flooding disasters, including the biggest sendoff for 2011 in tropical storm Sendong, will happen in the country.
With massive reforestation still a work in progress led by 聽the private sector, rather than the national government, public officials聽聽 will really have to do what聽 President Benigno Aquino III聽 ordered 鈥撀� revisit manuals for rescue and relief operations as well as revamp聽 existing flood mitigation measures.
Drainage master plans are still rusting in the pipeline due to lack of funds and assorted excuses.聽 A positive note is that some institutions like the University of the Philippines in Manila have taken it upon themselves to train counselors who will help comfort families, whose loved ones perished in natural and man-made calamities.
The initiative was proposed in the aftermath of Dec. 16鈥檚 Sendong, where over 1,200 drowned or were聽 buried in landslides. UP officials said these counselors could聽 augment the ranks of local social workers, who have their hands full distributing relief aid to survivors.
What鈥檚 also laudable is a proposal for the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to tap volunteer nurses and medical personnel in disaster victim identification (DVI) work.聽 This would ease the burden of聽 the NBI, which has a ton of work in its hands.
With training, volunteer medical personnel can handle聽 DVI work.聽 With their exposure to hospital work pressure, they are聽 used to dealing with聽聽 death. Calamities聽 like the 鈥淪endong鈥� storm require all available help on board.
The government could also tap聽 surplus聽 nurses in the country, particularly in Cebu, and doctors in a DVI program in the event their assistance is needed聽 in the province or elsewhere in the country.
Cebu City had the good fortune of receiving donated medical equipment for DVI work following the 2008 sinking of the MV Princess of the Stars.
Cebu local governments also need to create a single conduit for the donation of goods, cash and other forms of assistance聽 to victims of national calamities.
After typhoon 鈥淥ndoy鈥� in 2009, there were plans of setting up a centralized warehouse for relief goods in Cebu.
What happened to these plans to map聽 out a logistics protocol to quickly gather聽 donations from various fund聽 drives and ship them out efficiently where they are most needed?
With Cebu鈥檚 central location in the archipelago, this would be a strategic move indeed.
The public聽 usually turns to聽 national media outlets聽 to give their donations. But even giants聽 like聽 ABS-CBN and GMA 7聽 can benefit from better coordination聽 in collecting and transporting聽 donations to the intended recipients.
May we consider these points as we wrap up the year 2011 and brace ourselves for more aberrations of聽 weather in 2012.