NEW Zealand Ambassador Reuben Levermore will grace the opening ceremony of Project ReBuild Phase I on resilience capacity building on Monday, July 8, 2013.

Project ReBUILD, which is funded by the New Zealand Aid Programme (NZAP) with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), aims to help cities and municipalities to reduce disaster risks from climate change and natural hazards.

With Levermore are Philippines’ Climate Change Commission Vice Chair Lucille Sering and UNDP Country Director Toshihiro Tanaka.

The project is good for three years starting October 2012 to June 2015 and aims to assess the disaster vulnerabilities of cities and municipalities surrounding the Jalaur River Basin in Calinog, Iloilo.

The Jalaur River Basin is the site of the P11.2 billion Jalaur River Multi-Purpose Project (JRMP) implemented by the National Government with a funding soft loan from the government of South Korea.

The biggest dam project outside of Luzon, JRMP is located in upper Calinog area where the indigenous people of Panay thrive. It is expected to add more than 5,000 hectares of irrigable farms, 25,000 additional cubic meters of bulk water supply and 6 megawatts of additional power supply.

Project ReBuild also assess the geological, meteorological and meteorologically-induced hazards due to climate change. The other project site is in the Cagayan River Basin in Cagayan Valley.

The project results will provide the basis for priority mitigation actions like community-based and managed early warning systems and integrated contingency planning and mobilization.

The project intends to improve the governance framework by putting in place the necessary enabling policy environment, mechanisms and systems in improving the competencies of concerned personnel to address disaster risks from natural hazards and climate change.

The project board of implementers is headed by the Climate Change Commission as chair and UNDP as co-chair.