St. Bernard shares disaster preparedness program in Cambodia

By REBECCA CADAVOS (PIA Southern Leyte)
April 11, 2008

PROVINCIAL CAPITOL, Southern Leyte  –  St. Bernard town shared its disaster preparedness program in the Asia Pacific Regional Disaster Risk Management Practitioners' Conference held in Cambodia, April 2-4, 2008, Gladys A. Montales, CARE-ACCORD Project Manager reported to PIA.

Mayor Rico Rentuza of Saint Bernard in Southern Leyte and Mayet Alcid, ACCORD Project Co-Manager were among the presentors during the conference of disaster risk management practitioners in Asia and the Pacific in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia.

Montales disclosed in her report that over a hundred representatives from some 10 countries in Asia and the Pacific gathered in Cambodia to share the best practices and lessons learned in the process of doing risk reduction projects in their respective areas.

“Among countries, preparing communities through capability building and contingency planning proved not only helpful but necessary,” Montales said.  Adding that, “there are victories and successes but the challenges are sustainability and scale or coverage of operations.”

CARE-ACCORD Project, a pilot project on disaster preparedness and mitigation, covers only 5 out of the 30 barangays, to address concerns at disaster hazard areas in St. Bernard, Montales revealed.

Moreover, the Municipal Disaster Coordinating Council (MDCC) in St. Bernard will replicate the CARE-ACCORD Project in three other high risk areas starting this year.  The project will render mentoring support to the MDCC.

Montales said that sustainability is the other main concern in the Cambodia conference. “This was raised repeatedly because successes will go to waste if these are not maintained.”  To ensure sustainability of the municipal's disaster preparedness and mitigation program, Mayor Rentuza led its integration of the municipal's Executive and Legislative Agenda or ELA, she pointed out.