THE OFFICE of Civil Defense will construct a P36.5-million regional evacuation center in Iloilo City. It will be erected on the city government’s 5,000-square meter property in Barangay Tacas, Jaro district. The project is most welcome. It will make the metropolis more disaster-resilient.
Three years ago when landslide struck the mountainous barangay of Maliao in Leon, Iloilom affected residents moved to their village’s identified evacuation center – their barangay hall. But the barangay hall was dangerously close to the landslide site – just around a hundred meters away. Had the landslide continued, all those who evacuated could have been buried alive under falling rocks and loose soil.
This brings us to an important realization – evacuation centers must be situated in safe areas and are structurally sound.
We must ensure that designated evacuation centers must be constructed on safe grounds, far from hazard-prone areas as seen in the geohazard maps. This should actually be the rule in all infrastructures for that matter. They must be disaster-resilient. In the recent past, even evacuation centers were not spared from the wrath of typhoons like “Yolanda.”
The resilience of our buildings and infrastructure is crucial in disaster risk reduction. We prevent or lessen deaths and damages from typhoons, earthquakes and other natural hazards with structurally sound infrastructure.
We must reduce the risks and not create new risks.
