The Department of Science and Technology has spent over P108.4 million for 12 new projects related to disaster risk reduction (DRR).
Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) executive director Enrico Paringit said investing in DRR is “crucial as the country contends with meteorologic, seismic, and volcanic events, and we should not let our guards down even with our tools, systems and technologies.”
For the past 10 years, Paringit said, about 8% of the total Grants-in-Aid Program budgets of the DOST and PCIEERD was allocated for projects related to DRR.
Among the DRR-related projects implemented starting this year are 1) development of artificial groundwater recharge facility for drought and flooding mitigation, 2) Drainage Crawler/Probe Development for Drainage Inspection (DraCrawla) Project, 3) POSTE (Interconnected Poste Kits for Environmental Sensing) Project, 4) Collaborative Aerial-ground unmanned system for exploration and monitoring of Philippine active volcanoes, and 5) Survey of Heatwaves in the Philippine Seas (SHIPS).
Paringit has reiterated his call for government agencies to partner with researchers to ensure that their outputs conform with expectations and meet operational requirements.
He has also invited local government units and the private sector to adopt these tools and help make them available to the most vulnerable communities.