Spain awards P203-M grant to Nueva Ecija for disasters

GUIMBA, Nueva Ecija— The Spanish Government has extended a 3.4-million-euro (around P203 million) grants to the Nueva Ecija provincial government to further strengthen its capability to respond to disaster and calamity situations and implement rehabilitation programs.

The grant, the first of its kind involving disaster risk reduction, was extended by the Spanish Cooperation Agency for Development (AECID).

AECID entered into a project partnership agreement with the Local Government Academy, an attached agency of the DILG, to strengthen local governments' disaster preparedness and response.

Gov. Aurelio Umali said the grant is now being used to fund the training component, infrastructure and livelihood components of the program in select cities and municipalities of the province.

Umali said the province’s systematic handling of irrigation systems has earned for it recognition as a role model of disaster management and risk reduction among local government units (LGUs) in the country which prompted the Spanish government to extend the said grant.

In a related development, Umali said that he is not keen on the installation of closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras at the spill gates of the giant Pantabangan Dam here, saying this is not the best way to monitor the rise in flood waters in the province’s waterways.

The Governor told newsmen that the history of the dam is the most important factor in the release of water so people could prepare for floods instead of relying on CCTVs.

Umali was commenting on plans in other areas hosting various dam systems to put up CCTVs as monitoring mechanisms to prevent overflowing that trigger floods.

Earlier, Bulacan Governor WilhelminoSy Alvarado raised the possibility of installing CCTVs at the spill gates of Angat, Ipo and Bustos dams and major rivers of the province with the monitoring systems to be set up at the operations center of the Bulacan Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRDMO) at the capitol compound.