CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Six international organizations have sent representatives to this flood ravaged province to find out how they could be of help, as they took rubber boats to penetrate isolated areas and assess for themselves the problems confronting affected local folk.
Gov. Lilia Pineda met here Thursday with representatives from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), World Food Program (WFP), MERLIN, World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) and Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA).
Pineda informed the foreign representatives that six Pampanga towns, including Candaba, San Luis, Macabebe, Masantol, San Simon, and Apalit, have remained flooded and are usually flooding during the rainy season.
She said 47,000 families are affected in these areas.
The IOM is known to provide logistics, evacuation centers, and transport in disaster-hit areas worldwide while the WFP donates energy biscuits and other basic supplies.
On the other hand, MERLIN which takes care of mobilization and transportation while WHO addresses health-related needs of victims in disaster-hit areas worldwide.
“We need your help and we are thankful that you are here with us,” Pineda told the representatives.
The meeting was also attended by member-agencies of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) who she urged to draw up short and long term plans for the families perennially hit by flooding during the rainy season.
After the meeting, foreign representatives visited on rubber boats the flooded areas in flooded towns of San Simon, San Luis, and Masantol.
Pineda has proposed to the national government the construction of permanent evacuation centers for folk perennially dislocated by flooding in Central Luzon.
“It’s getting worse each year and we can’t go on like this. We must treat this problem in the way the government did during the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo,” she said.
Pineda has asked the National Housing Authority to allocate lands for such permanent evacuation centers.
She noted that a 50-hectare resettlement site for Mt. Pinatubo victims in Magalang town has remained idle and that she would ask the NHA to transform this into a permanent evacuation site for flooding victims.
“I know people would not leave their homes, but they would be safer in permanent evacuation centers.
Eventually, once they get used to the evacuation centers, they might be more open to moving into it permanently and abandon their endangered areas,” she added.
