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PGMA bares plan to set up weather forecast assets

Written by anyajulia on 01 December 2009

PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo revealed in Bohol the government plan to equip itself with weather forecasting assets, during her recent one-one one interview with a local media representative in Loboc.

This as she stresses that weather forecasting is one very important things, at a meeting with the press prior to a cabinet meeting on disaster preparedness set in Bohol two weeks ago.

“What is most important is that we have to be ready,” the president told Bohol Chronicle chief Peter Dejaresco.

Dejaresco, the son of the paper’s founder and the current chief executive officer of the Bohol Chronicle Radio Broadcasting Corporation asked the President, is the Philippines ready for disasters with all the preparations.

Over that, Mrs Arroyo cited America and her advanced technology, “and they were still proven to be not ready”.

Mrs. Arroyo pointed out that weather forecasting is one important thing, and so we are improving our capabilities to track rainfall amount.

She was talking about a system of Doppler radars installed all over strategic locations in the country.

A doppler radar makes use of the doppler effect to produce data about objects at a distance, by beaming a microwave signal towards a desired target and listening for its reflection.

It also includes analyzing how the original signal has been altered by the object that reflected it.

Variations in the frequency of the signal give direct and highly accurate measurements of a target’s velocity relative to the radar source and the direction of the microwave beam, according to wikepedia.

President Arroyo told the media in Bohol that the country has already installed radar in Baler Quezon, Tagaytay, and is testing in Baguio and Subic.

The country is also putting up one in Surigao and South Cotabato, Catanduanes, Virac and in Guian Samar next year, she narrated.

Weather system forecasting has popped up as a necessary capability after the country, especially Southern Luzon, bore the brunt of floods spawned by a series of storms dumping rains all over the places.

With the system of radars installed, the president hopes that the country can have pre-emptive evacuations, she said.

To secure the country’s food supply, the President also ordered the Department of Agriculture (DA) to fast- track all irrigation infrastructure projects in time as the government intensifies preparations to help the agricultural sector deal with the damage of the storms and the El Nino weather phenomenon.

Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo added that the President has also instructed the Pro-Performance Team to work with the private sector to monitor the progress of the president’s State-of-the- Nation commitments projects.

The DA has been pushing upland rice production in anticipation of the dry spell that is threatening the agriculture industry.

Now, the DA is prioritizing farm-to-market roads, irrigation systems, extension services, loans, dryers, and certified seeds in anticipation of the widely held belief El Niño will “put pressure on the agriculture sector”.(PIA)

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