Gensan is low-risk in climate change impacts

By IAN JOHN M. LAGARE

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (05 December 2014) - Gensan attained a vulnerability score of 5.75 in the recent Business Risk Assessment and the Management of Climate Change Impacts conducted by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the BPI Foundation, Inc. this 2014.

Jose Ma. Lorenzo "Lory" Tan, CEO and vice chair of the WWF Philippines, bared the vulnerability score of General Santos City Wednesday (December 3) at Greenleaf Hotel.

Tan said the score was culled in terms of climate change impacts and compared to the other 15 cities which participated in the study.

Gensan, among the 16 cities included in the research, has the second lowest vulnerability score, following the city of Angeles which scored 5.56. Baguio, has the highest risk score (7.43) because of its geographical location and susceptibility to landslides, floods, and other extreme weather effects.

Other cities are Laoag (5.80), Dagupan (6.91), Iloilo (6.69), Puerto Princesa (5.89), Batangas (5.65), Zamboanga (6.32), Santiago (6.04), Naga (6.10), Cebu (6.55), Tacloban (6.74), Cagayan (6.68), and Butuan (6.03).

Vulnerability scores were generated from 20-year historical city-level data on climate exposure, socio-economic drivers, and adaptive capacities.

Multi-stakeholder Scenario Building Exercises with the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CDRRMC), City Planning and Development Office (CPDO), and City Economic Management and Cooperative Development Office also contributed to the scores.

City Mayor Ronnel Rivera, who was present in the event, was happy with the result but at the same time aware that the report by the WWF and BPI is a warning that the local government unit of General Santos City and other stakeholders should take heed.

Tan advised Mayor Rivera, as well as the General Santos City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. that they should extrapolate and develop sustainable plans that would make the city “climate change adaptive”.

“Gensan is a strategic and beautiful city. Investors and people swarm in here because of the resources and amenities the city can offer and this could either be a good or bad news for you, depending on how you deal with this fact,” Tan said.

“It is important to be attractive but don’t look too handsome,” Tan pointed out.

The CEO said that since Gensan is in a good state in terms of its business climate and topography, people from its neighboring provinces would flock in to the city. This could jeopardize the city’s resources if not managed well.

Tan also cited the possible sustainable avenues the city can integrate for the climate change, considering the results of their study.

Among these are the multi-transit system, alternate sources of potable water, improvement of drainage system, pavement of roads and alternate routes, and the development of agricultural sector.

Mayor Rivera thanked the WWF and BPI for their study and assured the rest of the stakeholders that the local government is taking the issue into account.

The first step the mayor has made is to incorporate the outputs of the study to the City Land Use Plan with the help of CDRRMC and CPDO. (Gensan CPIO/ Ian John M. Lagare)