Japan gives Albay P450M for shelters

LEGAZPI CITY—Albay received P450 million in grants from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) for six permanent evacuation centers in the towns of Manito, Sto. Domingo, Oas, Polangui, Libon and this city that would house people displaced by disasters in the province, a top disaster relief official said.

Cedric Dape, head of the Albay Public Safety Emergency Management Office (Apsemo), said the centers would be built in areas prone to landslides (Manito), flooding (Oas, Polangui, Libon) and lahar or mud flows (Sto. Domingo, Legazpi City) at a cost of P75 million per center.

He said the permanent shelters would help ease the pressure on public schools that are used as temporary evacuation camps in these high-risk areas in times of storms and other severe weather events.

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, in an e-mail message, said he personally attended the Jica-PH project tending in Japan on Monday during which the project was bade out for implementation in the second half of this year.

He said in 2010 he signed an agreement with Nagaishi Masfumi, Jica country representative, for the P450-million project.

Salceda said at least 10 percent of villagers in the six sites would benefit from the P450-million project.

Apsemo statistics showed that in the six areas, a total of 97 villages with 25,940 families or 130,904 persons are at risk in times of disasters. Nearly three quarters of these villages are prone to flooding while 12.5 percent are prone to landslides and the remaining 12.5 percent at risk to lahar.

Salceda said the centers would be constructed in school lots of the Department of Education (DepEd) in the five towns of Albay and Legazpi City. They could be either a two-story or single-story facility depending on the size of the public school grounds.

He said the permanent shelters would ease crowding during disasters in school buildings used as evacuation sites and would help shelter displaced people without disrupting classes.

During good weather, each of the centers could be converted into a 10-classroom type school building, said Salceda.

He said the Jica project “is the single biggest assistance given by the Japanese government to address Albay’s zero casualty goal in times of disasters.”

The project brought to a total of nine the number of evacuation centers in the province.

There are three existing two-story permanent evacuation centers in the towns of Daraga, Camalig and Guinobatan built at a cost of P180 million and funded by the Spanish government through the Agencia Española de Cooperacion Internacional para el Desarollo (Aecid).

They have been completed and turned over to the local government units.