Kumalarang, Zamboanga del Sur 06/23/2014 – In recent years, there has been a budding recognition that strengthening resilience to disasters is not only about disaster management but an essential component of all emergency and development programming. Communities with sustainable infrastructures that provide livelihoods, good levels of health care and access to a quality education are less susceptible to hazards. However, it is also important that these development projects are protected from disasters.

To ensure that disaster risk reduction is an integral part of its development work and that all its programmes work towards disaster risk reduction in an integrated and mutually supportive way, the DSWD through its Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan – Integrated and Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) has recently launched its Thematic Environmental Management System. This system forms part of the program’s goal of making innovative pathways for building community resiliency and develop communities to be equipped with knowledge on environmental responsibility.

However, even before institutionalizing the system as part of Kalahi-CIDSS implementation, a number of municipalities has already been integrating environmental safety measures in building community sub-projects in the countryside. The municipality of Kumalarang, Zamboanga del Sur was among the awardees of Best Practice in Promoting Community Environment and Awareness because of its sub-project constructed last February 2013 particularly in Barangay Pangi.

Barangay Pangi is one of the poor barangays of Kumalarang with no enough classrooms to occupy its elementary enrolees. The community has expressed its intention to access funding assistance from KC-AusAID for the construction of 1 unit 2 classroom elementary school building. The said project was worth Php 1,414,821.40 funded by Australian Aide for International Development (AusAID) with local counterpart contribution coming from the BLGU, MLGU and community.

Since the identified project site is an upland area, landslides represent a substantial threat to students and school members. During the construction of the sub-project, unexpectedly soil on the rear side of the building slides which hampered the operation and completion of the sub-project on time.

Seeing the need to prevent the same incident to happen in the future, series of consultation were done at the community level to ensure the stability and sustainability of the sub-project. Three options were presented at the community such as benching with installation of coconut hush net, rip rapping and the so called soil bioengineering techniques. Technical personnel had also assessed the characteristics of the soil prior to finalization of slope protection concept. The team decided to employ the latter option wherein there is benching with vegetation control or nearly similar with the Live Fascine technique to support failing slopes or to reduce slope angles and allow other vegetation to be established.

Melchor Verallo, Barangay Sub-Project Management Committee Chairperson shared how this particular project is different and special as compared to other community projects they were provided. “Kahit na di kami naprioritize sa pondo ng kalahi (CIDSS), dito sa tulong ng Ausaid di lang kami natuto gumawa ng proposals, mga paglihok sa papeles, dito may bago kaming kanang nakat-unan kung paunsaon ang pag-construct sa usa ka building nga stable, dili maapektuhan sa kalamidad.” (Although our proposed project was not prioritized under the kalahi (CIDSS) fund, still, with the help of AusAID we learned to not only make proposals, to process documents, but we also learned how to construct a stable building which will not be easily affected by disaster.)

The Thematic Environmental Management System is an initiative to mainly address the increasing likelihood of disasters hitting the country as the “new normal”. The challenge among DSWD staff regarding this is to pursue building the attitude of the community to be resilient against disasters and develop sustainable ways that will support the growth of their community through Kalahi-CIDSS.

KALAHI-CIDSS is a community-driven development project that aims to empower communities through their enhanced participation in community projects that reduce poverty. The program has just recently held a press conference last June 18, 2014 for the launching of its scale up to National Community Driven Development Program (NCDDP) which will cover 847 municipalities nationwide. ###