More than Php108.4 million of government money was spent on 12 different disaster risk reduction (DRR) projects by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), aimed at mitigating the potential repercussions associated with the act of God.
Speaking to the Philippine News Agency, Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) Executive Director Enrico Paringit cites the importance of the investment in DRR as “crucial,” pointing to the country’s vulnerability on three fronts—”meteorologic, seismic, and volcanic”.
In an era where advanced “tools, systems, and technologies” play a central role in the monitoring of probable natural disasters, Paringit emphasizes the necessity of “not letting our guards down.”
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A practice that has been an ongoing trend in the past decade, the exec tells that about 8 percent of the DOST and the PCIEERD’s entire Grants-in-Aid Program budgets are set for projects around disaster risk reduction.
A list of DRR-related projects that were greenlit this year includes the POSTE (Interconnected Poste Kits for Environmental Sensing) Project, the artificial groundwater recharge facility for drought and flooding mitigation, the Drainage Crawler/Probe Development for Drainage Inspection (DraCrawla) Project, Survey of Heatwaves in the Philippine Seas (SHIPS), and the Collaborative Aerial-ground unmanned system for exploration and monitoring of Philippine active volcanoes.