Resilience to Hydro-Meteorological Disasters of Coastal Municipalities in Metro Naga, Camarines Sur, Philippines

Abstract

The study evaluated the resilience of the five coastal municipalities of the Metro Naga to hydro-meteorological disaster. It focused on flooding because it is known to be the most frequent and the most damaging hazard to the country. The approach used measured disaster risk and resilience based on a set of environmental and socioeconomic indicators. It involved household surveys, key informant interviews, and secondary data gathering. The study found that all five municipalities are highly exposed to flooding and associated risks. The risk of fatality from flooding exceeds the acceptable level by national and international standards of “zero tolerance”. The risk of damage to built-up and agricultural areas is less than the threshold for a state of calamity but nonetheless warrants serious attention since the value of the potential damage is already enormous. The resilience of all five municipalities to flood disasters is significantly low. This suggests that these municipalities will experience difficulty in making rapid, coordinated, and effective efforts to respond to and recover from the disastrous effects of flooding if no action is taken to reduce the risks and improve resilience to acceptable levels. It is recommended that action on following areas should be prioritized: reliability of electricity supply; livelihood security; viability of transportation network; savings and credit accessibility; mainstreaming disaster risk reduction management in local governance; and collaboration with public agencies, people’s organizations, and civil society organizations which is crucial since all the municipalities face financial challenges that will have to be addressed creatively.