Philippines: ACCORD 2 sets simultaneous cross-visit, flood and landslide drill in St. Bernard

Southern Leyte - The Corporate Network for Disaster and the Municipality of St. Bernard will be holding a cross-visit across the three pilot areas of the “Strengthening Assets and Capacities of Communities and Local Governments for Resilience to Disasters (ACCORD) on May 1-3, 2009 at St. Bernard town.

Secretary to the Municipal Disaster Coordinating Council Rosalinda Araneta in his message sent to PIA said that ACCORD, now on its second year of implementation will also conduct simultaneously flood drill and rain-induced landslide drill as one of the highlights of the said visit.

Araneta reported that the community-based disaster risk management project also operates in four other municipalities as pilot areas, such as Calabanga in Camarines Sur, Dingalan in Aurora, Maragusan in Compostela Valley and in Jabonga, Agusan del Sur.

The members of the Municipal and Barangay Disaster Coordinating Councils from Calabanga and Maragusan will be visiting St. Bernard on the the said schedules, Araneta told.

The three-day activity aims to provide a venue for sharing and exchanging knowledge, insights and lessons learned from implementing disaster risk reduction activities, she added.

ACCORD project in close coordination with CARE, a leading humanitarian non-profit organization had already conducted the first landslide drill last April 2008 which also coincided with the national press visit, showing off St. Bernard’s good practices on disaster preparedness, it was learned.

By R.G. Cadavos