Posted on September 07, 2012 06:06:59
PM [ BusinessWorld Online ]
THE ENVIRONMENT department has advised
real estate firms and home buyers to use the agency’s geohazard maps to ensure
that their properties are situated away from areas prone to landslides and
floods.
In a statement on Friday, Environment Secretary Ramon Jesus P. Paje said
that the maps produced by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) could help
prospective property buyers and property developers avoid risks to their
investments, and more importantly, save lives.
The MGB’s geohazard mapping and
assessment program, which is part of the government’s risk reduction and
disaster management program, seeks to identify areas in the country which are
susceptible to a variety of geologic hazards like rain-induced landslides,
floods, ground subsidence or sinking, and coastal degradation, among others.
The maps show the level of vulnerability of a certain barangay or municipality
to these kinds of disasters.
“Buying a house and lot is definitely
a big investment for an ordinary family; that they have to pay at the most, for
30 years, if they acquire such through a housing loan. Finding out that their
area gets easily flooded and are prone to landslide later on would be tragic,
so it is better to be on safe side always,” Mr. Paje stressed.
Property developers, on the other
hand, were urged by the Cabinet official to use the maps to study targeted
project areas and be able to make necessary adjustments to the designs of their
buildings.
“We have already experienced the
varied impacts of climate change -- severe flooding, landslides, drought --
which we could no longer ignore. These are the new normal, and to stay afloat
with these new situations, we need to adapt to climate change by way of
technologies, engineering interventions, even the architecture of our buildings
and houses,” he explained.
Through the MGB’s geohazard mapping
and assessment efforts, the department has already identified the top 10
flood-prone areas in the country, namely Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac,
Pangasinan, Maguindanao, Bulacan, Metro Manila, North Cotabato, Oriental Mindoro
and Ilocos Norte.
The top 10 landslide-prone areas, on
the other hand, are Benguet, Mt. Province, Nueva Ecija, Kalinga-Apayao,
Southern Leyte, Abra, Marinduque, Cebu, Catanduanes and Ifugao.
The bureau has already finished
producing geohazard maps with a scale of 1:50,000 for all the 1,634 cities and
municipalities in the country. It is now working on enlarging the maps to a
scale of 1:10,000, said the department.
It is also currently conducting
geohazard surveys and assessments of coastal and marine areas.
The maps, said Mr. Paje, can be viewed
on the Web sites of the Environment department (www.denr.gov.ph), the MGB
(www.mgb.gov.ph), the Philippine Information Agency (www.pia.gov.ph) and the
Environmental Science for Social Change (www.essc.org.ph).
Interested parties can also contact
their respective local government units to view the maps, which are also
downloadable from the MGB’s Web site. -- Bettina Faye V. Roc
_______________________________________________________________
