Philippines: New disaster risk reduction manual for schools

Cagayan de Oro City - The Department of Education has come up with a Disaster Risk Reduction Resource Manual (DRRRM) that is responsive to the needs of the DepEd family during the occurrence of disasters.

Dr. Luz Almeda, Regional Director of DepEd-10, said the manual aims to provide school administrators, teaching and non-teaching staff with a handy and ready reference on what to do before, during and after the occurrence of a calamity / disaster brought about by both human-induced and natural hazards

More aptly called the Safer Schools Resource Manual (SSRM), the said reference includes various components, particularly, equity of assistance, resource management, impact reduction, disaster prevention and mitigation and organization of a disaster control group.

Almeda said these human-induced hazards include the technological hazards, like, structure collapse, fire, vehicular-related accidents, chemical spill, electrical blackout and food poisoning while the natural hazards include the geological phenomena, such as, earthquake, tsunami, volcanic eruption, and astronomical hazards.

Also discussed in the manual are the risk profile and vulnerable areas of the country as illustrated in a satellite map showing typhoons in the area of responsibility of the Philippines, the Pacific Ring of Fire, the annual pattern of typhoon incidence from 1950 to 1995, areas at high risk to storm surge and major flood areas in the Philippines.

Areas vulnerable to landslides, the country's vulnerability to temperature increase, El Niño Southern Oscillation Vulnerability Map, La Niña Vulnerability Map, areas affected by sea level rise and destructive earthquakes, phases of Disaster Risk Management (DRM), pre-event, post-event, and the Cluster Approach on Humanitarian Response are also highlighted in the manual, Almeda added.