Filed Under: Global Warming, Environmental Issues, Climate Change

MANILA, Philippines—Who would have thought Filipino hands helped rebuild Vilufushi Island in the Maldives that was devastated by a deadly tsunami the day after Christmas in 2004.

Fast forward to last month. Again, Filipinos and a United Nations delegation led by Sen. Loren Legarda were in the Maldives to advocate for programs for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.

The delegation’s choice to be in the Maldives was significant. Based on a UN study, seas are likely to rise 59 centimeters by 2100 due to global warming. This puts the Maldives, consisting of a group of atolls just 1.5 meters above water, in a vulnerable situation. Already, the island country faces problems such as beach erosion and limited shore defenses. Its people may have to leave the islands earlier than 2100.

Legarda and other officials said the Philippines, just like the Maldives, is vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

“Eighty percent of disasters happen in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Legarda, who is the UN’s champion for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation for Asia Pacific. “The rising sea level will affect all of us.”

She said studies showed that a one-meter, sea level rise could affect one-third of a country’s population. For instance, a one-meter rise of the sea would affect 129,000 hectares of the Philippines.

“This means 28 out of the 80 provinces in the country could go under water,” Legarda said.

Maldivian Home Affairs Minister Mohamed Shihab told the UN mission that their islands had been affected by climate change as there were more storms and flooding in the last two to three years.

In the Philippines, the effects of climate change were evident in the aftermath of the typhoons, according to Jerry Velasquez, Senior Regional Coordinator of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR).

In 2004, the country was hit by three typhoons in the span of 10 days, causing much damage to life and property in Real, Quezon, according to Emmanuel de Guzman, UNISDR consultant.

In 2006, a mudslide buried Barangay Guinsaugon in St. Bernard town, Southern Leyte, after “10 days of unabated rains.” Early this year, it rained heavily in Iloilo, there was “so much precipitation in a short period.”

Velasquez said, quoting officials from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), that the recent typhoons in the country came from areas like Indonesia.

In the past, the typhoons that hit the country make their way via the Pacific Ocean, he said.

The 2009 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction showed that the Philippines was a “shopping center for disaster,” Velasquez said.

It said that typhoons and landslides could hit any part of the country, floods were a problem in Metro Manila and Mindanao, while drought could occur in the National Capital Region and in the Visayas.

And while people tend to question how authorities can scientifically prove that these events were effects of climate change, Velasquez said what was important was for all to come up with ways to reduce the risk of disasters.

Ahmed Solih, project manager of a reconstruction project in the Maldives, explained how they were able to rebuild Vilufushi Island, after it was devastated by a deadly tsunami in 2004.

Segregate garbage

It had taken five years and the help of overseas Filipino workers to extend Vilufushi Island from 16 to 64 hectares and raise it to 2.4 meters above sea level.

“Except for Malé, the capital of the Maldives, [Vilufushi] is the safest island,” Solih said.

In her visit to Vilufushi, Legarda pushed for the islanders to segregate their garbage and to plant trees that had been wiped out by the tsunami.

There is still much work to be done.

The Maldives had just firmed up an agreement with the UNISDR that will see them coming up with a Strategic National Action Plan on Disaster Risk Reduction (SNAP).

SNAP will allow the Maldives to come up with a ready response and recovery during disasters but also allow it to prepare, prevent and minimize disasters caused by climate change. It helps that Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed, who won in the country’s first democratic election, is committed to the environment.

A former journalist, Nasheed stunned the world when he announced this year that his country was adopting an economy-wide carbon neutral plan for the next 10 years. Maldives will basically switch to renewable energy.

A report from the British paper the Guardian on March 9 this year reported that Nasheed approached British climate change experts to help develop the radical carbon-neutrality plan which called for virtually eliminating fossil fuel use in the Maldives archipelago by 2020.

“The clean electricity would power not only homes and businesses, but also vehicles. Cars and boats with petrol and diesel engines would be gradually replaced by electric versions,” according to the British paper.

Two leaders, one cause

In a meeting with Legarda, Nasheed said his country views climate change not only as a human rights issue but as a security issue as well.

He also stressed the need to have people “directly involved” in mitigating and reducing disaster risks.

Since the Maldives had just created its parliament, Legarda offered to give Nasheed a copy of two Philippine legislations she authored—the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2001 and the Climate Change Act of 2009.

She also asked Nasheed to join her in a “climate alliance to rethink development” which she espoused during the second session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva, Switzerland, last month.

In that forum, Legarda called for a new development paradigm that would help save the planet and usher in a safer environment amid the worsening effects of global warming.

Nasheed supported the proposal for a leaders forum to be held in October in the Maldives where small island nations at risk from climate change would discuss more initiatives.

The leaders’ forum will be chaired by Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and cochaired by Legarda.

“We may be small islands and vulnerable but we’re loud voices in the global arena,” Legarda said.