TAGUM CITY, Davao del Norte, July 01 (PIA): Adapting to climate change and becoming resilient to disaster risk are challenges that Gov. Rodolfo P. del Rosario is bracing for, in his last three years as governor.
In his inaugural address Sunday (June 30) at the RDR Gym and Cultural Center, del Rosario called attention to the “veritable challenge” of transforming human development programs “to be climate change adaptive and disaster risk resilient.”
He pushed for such move as he warned of possible loss of development gains that his administration had worked for, to the adverse effects of global climate change.
While he cited Davao del Norte to have ranked among the fast-growing provinces in the country in the last 46 years, he revealed the geo-statistics study of the Department of Agriculture (DA) which found out that 66 percent of Davao del Norte’s land area or 205,000 hectares, is vulnerable to flood, drought and landslides.
“This means, the hard-earned gains we have today are likely to be swept away in a blink of an eye,” he said.
Del Rosario related his concern to the implementation of Climate Change Act (CCA) and the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) which he viewed as twin major policies of President Benigno S. Aquino III that would redefine the global and national priorities.
“We must be able to align to these priorities to be able to catch the windfall of public investments,” he said.
While noting the typhoon path to have moved closer to the Davao Region, Del Rosario pointed out the need to strengthen the positive behavior and the culture of safety among his constituents.
He expected to see engineering works to result in reduced incidence of flooding; the agricultural innovations to mitigate the impact of climate change especially to livelihood of communities; and the sense of preparedness imbibed in the consciousness of the people.
Del Rosario hoped for response to disaster be made “swift, efficient and strictly, zero-casualty” by collaborating with government agencies, non-government organizations and the private sector.
While mapping out pro-active moves to mitigate the effects of climate change, Del Rosario still keeps sight of his P.E.O.P.L.E. development agenda, giving priority on health, education and income opportunities.
He placed his agenda on people empowerment, public-private partnership and strengthening links to the world as strategic means of facilitating the achievement of his development priorities.
In his last three years, Del Rosario also intended to push for road developments connecting Davao del Norte to neighboring provinces; to bring back the greenery of mountains in support of the 1 billion trees program of Pres. Aquino; to support efforts to answer needs of local schools for new facility; to continue improving the provincial hospitals; to improve the productivity of farmers; and to realize the target outcomes of the Aus-Aid assisted Provincial Roads Management Facility (PRMF) in roads management, human resource management, internal operations and revenue generation.
Del Rosario encouraged people’s participation and cooperation in working out the realization of his goals. (PIA XI/ Jeanevive D. Abangan)
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