Community-based prevention system to be implemented in Barangay Suba
In the event of fire, trained residents with access to hoses attached to the tank through valves can respond while firefighters make their way to the scene
FOLLOWING the recent fire in Barangay Suba, the Cebu City Government plans to install a community-based prevention system in slum improvement resettlement (SIR) areas.
In an interview yesterday, Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (CCDRRMO) Chief Nagiel Bañacia assured that the system, which will serve as a water reservoir, can be covered by the budget for next year.
“With SIRs being the most vulnerable areas for fire, we’re planning on setting a system that will enable the community to address the problem while the firemen make their way. This will also be helpful, even during an El Niño phenomenon. The residents will just have to maintain it,” he said.
Of the P7.2-billion proposed budget by Mayor Tomas Osmeña for 2017, P300 million is appropriated for CCDRRMO, 70 percent of which is for disaster preparedness.
Bañacia explained that the system includes a strainer that will seep rainwater which is then stored in a tank.
This will be installed while the City re-blocks the affected families.
In the event of a fire, trained residents, who are given access to the water hoses attached to the tank through valves, can immediately respond while firefighters make their way.
Clarification
He said that while the Suba has been chosen as a pilot area, the City Government will soon put up the system in all the 80 barangays.
He, however, clarified that the City will hold a consultation with residents of Suba on Saturday before pushing for the program.
Until then, CCDRRMO and the Division of Welfare for the Urban Poor (DWUP) will conduct trainings and seminars in both the community and family levels on disaster preparedness.
DWUP officer-in-charge Genevieve Alcoseba, for her part, said they are finalizing the home lot survey for the reblocking of the 204 families displaced by the fire in Sitio Wakwak last Monday.
She encouraged the affected families to consider the City’s prevention system as their residences are hard to access during calamities.
“Our advocacy has always been to have all the residents in the city ready for any disaster or incident. We want to empower the communities through this,” she said.
Osmeña, on the other hand, is asking the City Legal Office to fast-track the necessary requirements needed to raise the cash aid for fire victims.
The mayor first announced his plan to double the P10,000 financial assistance for fire victims last month when fire struck Sitio Kagutungan in Barangay Suba.
The Department on Social Welfare and Services has distributed meals to the survivors in last Monday’s fire and is processing their cash assistance.