THE Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (CCDRRMC) has already recommended the declaration of state of preparedness in the upland barangays due to the hot weather.
Wesley Vincent Yñigo, operations chief of the disaster office, said the approved resolution of the disaster council on the recommendation for the declaration of state of preparedness will be forwarded to the City Council for the formal declaration.
City Agriculturist Apple Tribunalo said 70 percent of the water supply in at least 28 upland barangays is already depleted due to the dry spell.
But despite it, Tribunalo said farmers can still harvest their crops to supply the demand in the market.
“Based on our monitoring, the farmers can still meet the demand for supply but we need to assist them because they have manually water their plants,” she said.
Although the City Agriculture Department (Cad) has yet to estimate the initial damage of the hotter weather, Tribunalo said the water supply is affected since sources like rivers, streams and deep wells started to dry up.
“We are accessing the water supply but as to the damage, we are still monitoring but we can already see the effect because water sources are starting to dry up especially in the elevated areas like in Sitio Kab-asan in Barangay Tagbao, there is a natural impounding there where the water is usually stored but now due to the hot weather, it’s already dry,” she said.
Tribunalo said they started to work on the procurement of hoses, water pumps and water drums that will be distributed to around 14,000 farmers in the city.
This year, Cad has P12 million budget for it.
Once the city will be placed underground state of calamity, Tribunalo said they can ask additional P15 million budget from the disaster fund to provide assistance to the farmers.
The additional budget, she said will cover for the purchase of seeds and fertilizers, among others, to help the farmers cope up with the effect of the dry spell.
For his part, Yñigo said once there is a need, they will recommend for the declaration of state of calamity in areas affected by the dry spell.
“State of preparedness is different from state of calamity because in preparedness, we just inform the public to prepare as to the state of calamity, it involves release of funds. In state of calamity, release of funds that will be used in any spending related to the calamity will be faster,” he said.