GCF-funded multi-hazard warning system completed in 2025 —PAGASA

The modern multi-hazard forecasting and early warning system for the Philippines, which has been recently approved by the Green Climate Fund (GCF), is expected to be completed in 2025, according to PAGASA on Tuesday.

“It’s been approved but we have to wait. Maybe in 2020 it will be implemented,” Thelma Cinco from PAGASA said in a press conference in Pasay City.

“It’s a five-year project which will simultaneously be implemented in four project sites,” she added.

The Philippine government recently secured a $10 million grant from the GCF for the establishment of advanced forecasting and early warning system in four hazard-prone project sites in the country, namely, Tuguegarao City (severe wind and flood); Legazpi City (severe wind and flood); Palo, Leyte (severe wind and storm surge); and New Bataan, Davao de Oro (severe wind and landslide).

An additional $10 million will be allocated from the government’s budget to cover the total project cost of $20 million.

Cinco said that PAGASA, as the project lead, would have a paradigm shift from weather forecasting to impact-based forecasting.

“The goal is to shift from this weather-based paradigm to one that is focused primarily to forecasting impacts wherein the focus will be on what the weather will do so that the people can react,” she said.

She also underscored that the local government units will have crucial roles to play in implementing early action and response such as pre-emptive evacuation of residents and early harvesting of crops. —NB, GMA News