Approximately ₱108.4 million was spent by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) on 12 disaster risk reduction (DRR) projects to mitigate the impact of the natural disaster.
According to Philippine News Agency, PCIEERD Executive Director Enrico Paringit believes that DRR investment is “crucial,” considering the country’s vulnerability on three fronts:
- meteorological
- seismic
- volcanic.
During an age when advanced “tools, systems, and technologies” are a crucial component of monitoring possible natural disasters, Paringit emphasizes the importance of not letting down our guards in the face of such events.
The DOST and the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) have been setting about 8 percent of their Grants-in-Aid Program budgets for projects around disaster risk reduction.
In addition to POSTE (Interconnected Poste Kits for Environmental Sensing), a facility for artificial groundwater recharge for drought and flooding mitigation, Drainage Crawler (DraCrawla), and Survey of Heatwaves in the Philippine Seas (SHIPS), a project devoted to exploring and monitoring active Philippine volcanoes, this year, several DRR-related projects have been approved.