OFFICIAL PORTAL
PRIME MINISTER'S DEPARTMENT
NATIONAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT AGENCY
PRIME MINISTER'S DEPARTMENT
NATIONAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT AGENCY
Four back-to-back typhoons pummelled the Philippines in 10 wild days of November. The storms followed 14 other typhoons to lash the archipelago last year, leaving its rescue teams frazzled, frustrated and burnt out.
Compassion fatigue has now washed over emergency workers in a mammoth wave, submerging the medics and volunteers who stepped into the fray - again and again - with a sense they’re drowning.
“No one is really immune to trauma, compassion fatigue and mental health problems - not even doctors,” said Pura Jacobe Gaddi, a local doctor who helped mobilise a 200-strong team of rescue and relief volunteers across the six provinces worst hit.
As a wall of punishing storms moved in last autumn – schools and hospitals shut for a week, streets turned to rivers – family doctor Gaddi knew she had to find a way to reach the many patients who were stranded in her typhoon-prone region.
So after Typhoon Trami welled over, she helped set up a network of volunteer doctors and rescuers and saw some 200 patients a day, be it visiting their ravaged homes, touring evacuation centres or caring via telemedicine and field visits.
Multiple cyclones - along with other natural disasters from earthquakes to volcanic eruptions - had taken a toll not only on the most vulnerable but also on those whose very job it was to help to them.
“People say that Bicolanos are resilient, but in my entire life, we experienced nothing of the same,” said Gaddi, one of the founders of the Tarabangan-Bicol Disaster Volunteer Network. “We are first typhoon survivors before we became volunteers.”
Bicol is long used to natural disasters - its position facing the Pacific Ocean exposing it to frequent typhoons and floods.
Compassion fatigue
Mercemarie Fajardo, also a volunteer doctor in Bicol, said she struggled with a sense of utter helplessness immediately after the storms, inundated with desperate calls for help.
“A lot of the towns were submerged and [people] had no choice but to expose themselves to the flood water. It was challenging to reach out,” said Fajardo.
The Department of Health said it was monitoring burnout amongst the population, acknowledging that “compassion fatigue” has also taken its toll on response and rescue personnel.
“The difference between a disaster zone and a combat zone is that in a disaster zone, no one’s shooting back at you, but the chaos, misery, and frustrations are there. People who work in disaster risk reduction management (DRRM) are not the superhumans we aspire them to be,” said Jason Bonaga, a water search and rescue volunteer in Bicol, which lies in the southern tip of Luzon island.
“No one really asks the rescuers here - ‘Are you okay? What can we do to help you?’ The compassion fatigue is real, but we don’t have the programmes in place for psychological first aid,” said Bonaga. “We need to start caring for (the rescue) people.”
Disaster risk reduction and management staff work for local governments, while the officials of cities or municipalities are expected to be the first responders to any local disasters.
But government auditors say local disaster funds often go unspent, according to a 2023 report by anti-poverty NGO Oxfam, which means help has not been handed to the helpers.
Volunteers also often make up for a shortfall in rescue officers, relief packs or health services - yet the volunteer doctors said their aim was never to replace local government, rather to offer spontaneous help in the immediate aftermath.
“It’s important to have a timeline. Like in the first 48 to 72 hours, that’s the emergency phase,” said Gaddi, setting out the parameters in which volunteer backup worked best.
“The next weeks is the recovery and rehabilitation phase,” she said. “It’s important that our volunteers know when will our volunteer efforts stop and when will the local government step in and take over.”
Are you ready?
A survey published in November showed that Bicol residents had experienced among the highest levels of exposure to disasters, especially typhoons, in all of the Philippines.
And despite having strong local disaster relief mechanisms in place - most locals know what they must do when one strikes - the survey found Bicol residents had the lowest opinion of their national government’s response efforts.
It is not a badge that Manila can afford to wear.
Asia was the world’s most disaster-hit region from weather, climate and water-related hazards in 2023, according to the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Of all disasters, floods and storms caused the highest number of reported casualties and economic losses, according to the WMO.
Yet the World Risk Poll 2024, a study by Lloyd’s Register Foundation, an independent global safety charity, shows people in Southeast Asia feel more prepared for disasters than anywhere else.
About 62 per cent of adults in Southeast Asia surveyed in 2023 live in households where everyone at home knows just how to respond in an emergency and about 67 per cent say they could protect themselves and their families from a future disaster.
“The high rate of experiencing disasters certainly contributes to these high scores,” Benedict Vigers, a researcher with Gallup, a consulting company commissioned to conduct the poll, told Context.
Despite such positives, Bonaga said: “We were only as prepared as our most vulnerable - and for most people, the mundane demands of day-to-day life come first.”
“It’s easy to say, ‘have a go-bag or an emergency supply’. But if you’re a daily wage earner… that’s not something you think about,” he said.
This story was published with permission from Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women’s rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit https://www.context.news/.
Jasmin panik LA terbakar lagi
- Admin UKK
- Berita
Kuala Lumpur: Kebakaran baharu hutan di utara Los Angeles, Amerika Syarikat, Rabu lalu mencetuskan perasaan panik kepada pelakon, Jasmin Suraya Chin, 36, yang kini berada di sana.
"Bagaimanapun semua orang terkejut bagaimana boleh terbakar lagi? Hari ini saya tak henti-henti dapat pemberitahuan terkini kebakaran.
"Dari 10 ekar, api dah merebak jadi 11,000 ekar. Jadi, saya kenalah peka dengan benda-benda begini. Saya dah fobia dah sejak hari (kebakaran) itu," katanya.
Kebakaran kali kedua ini berlaku di sekitar tasik yang terletak kira-kira 56 kilometer di utara Los Angeles dan berhampiran dengan bandar Santa Clarita.
Arahan pemindahan juga turut dikeluarkan kepada 31,000 penduduk di kawasan itu.
Menurut pelakon filem Paskal ini, apabila melihat berita kejadian kebakaran kedua, perasaan panik semakin bertambah.
"Memanglah terkejut sampaikan kawan saya kemaskan pakaian untuk pindah ke Miami. Esok pagi penerbangan dia.
"Saya pun terfikir-fikir juga kalau nak pergi tempat lain sementara waktu ini. Saya masih ada kelas dan tak cuti.
"Saya juga akan balik Malaysia untuk bercuti pada April nanti. Saya sangat rindukan tanah air terutama makanan yang sedap-sedap," katanya.
Jasmin yang kini menyambung pengajian di akademi lakonan, Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute di Los Angeles membayangkan mengambil kesempatan semasa cuti hampir tiga bulan ini.
"Pengurus saya sedang membincangkan perkara ini dengan produksi," katanya.
HUA HIN — Flying through Bangkok’s cloudless blue skies, a small aircraft sprays a white mist over a thick haze of pea soup smog below.
This is Thailand’s desperate, unproven attempt at reducing the oppressive air pollution over its capital, which on Thursday reached eight times the World Health Organization’s recommended daily maximum average.
The scourge has made more than a million people ill since late 2023 and cost Thailand more than $88 million in medical expenses, the public health ministry said earlier this month.
According to Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt, the main culprits are vehicle emissions, crop burning in the wider region and “closed” weather conditions — a warm atmospheric lid covering the dust, preventing it from dispersing.
Known as a temperature inversion, the kingdom is trying to deal with the phenomenon using a homegrown experimental method to displace the pollution.
Twice a day, the Royal Rainmaking department sends aircraft up to spray cold water or dry ice into the layer of warm air to cool it down.
Critics say there is little to no evidence it works. AFP was granted exclusive access on board a flight over the outskirts of Bangkok.
Inside the small craft — which climbed to an altitude of around 1,500 metres (5,000 feet) — a scientist tracks the flight path on an iPad as two crew members release icy water from a pair of large blue containers that sprays out from the craft’s belly.
The theory is that reducing the temperature difference between the levels makes it easier for the trapped particles, known as PM2.5, to disperse into the upper atmosphere.
It is an unconventional method the department says is only used in Thailand. “This is not the usual cloud seeding,” said programme head Chanti Detyothin.
‘Doing our best’
Countries have long tried “cloud seeding” — injecting chemicals such as silver iodide into clouds to trigger rain or snowfall — in attempts to alleviate drought and, increasingly, air pollution.
But its effectiveness is open to question and scientists say it has been shown to only be marginally useful in creating rain and absorbing pollutants.
Thailand’s worst smog happens during the dry season between December and April, when it is too windy and cloudless to induce precipitation.
The new technique was first used last year and is still in its testing stages. Another aircraft measures pollutant concentrations before and after spraying to gauge the difference in air quality.
“The concentration (of PM 2.5) is less,” said Chanti.
“The data suggests that at the level of our area of focus, the dust cleared up,” though he admits they cannot “make the pollution go away entirely. Even with this new technology, there are limitations.”
“We have been working every day for Bangkok to have clean air. We are doing our best as much as we can,” he said.
Oil and gas firm
Ahead of takeoff, rainmaking staff pile a tonne (1,000 litres) of either dry ice, or ice and water into a plane — traditional cloud-seeding aircraft with repurposed spraying equipment.
The dry ice — solidified carbon dioxide — is provided by Thailand’s oil and gas giant PTT and other energy companies.
PTT did not immediately respond to requests from AFP for comment.
Another fossil fuel company, Bangkok Industrial Gas, also donated dry ice to the programme this month, with managing director Piyabut Charuphen saying in a statement the gift was part of their “commitment to creating a sustainable future”.
Carbon dioxide is itself a greenhouse gas and the environmental and health effects of spraying dry ice in the atmosphere are not fully understood.
Weenarin Lulitanonda, co-founder of Thailand Clean Air Network, accused the energy firms of “using cilantro to garnish their dish”.
The Thai idiom, she explained, meant that “instead of solving the problem, (they) are creating a beautiful image”.
Just one flight can cost up to $1,500, and with aircraft taking off from three bases around the country, it can reach $9,000 per day.
Ekbordin Winijkul of the Asian Institute of Technology said it is more cost-effective for Bangkok to address the causes of pollution with proven measures such as low-emissions traffic zones.
City authorities are already pursuing many of these, he said, like banning some heavy-duty vehicles and working with other provinces to control agricultural burning.
“Before we try to do something,” he said, “at least we should have confidence in the data first”. — AFP
Bangkok: Pencemaran udara di ibu negara Thailand memaksa penutupan lebih 350 sekolah pada Jumaat, kata pihak berkuasa bandar raya, memandangkan Bangkok disenaraikan sebagai bandar raya utama ketujuh paling tercemar di dunia oleh pemantau kualiti udara, IQAir.
Pencemaran udara bermusim lama melanda Thailand, seperti kebanyakan negara di rantau ini, tetapi keadaan berjerebu minggu ini menutup kebanyakan sekolah sejak 2020.
"Pentadbiran Metropolitan Bangkok menutup 352 sekolah di 31 daerah akibat pencemaran udara," kata pihak berkuasa itu dalam satu mesej yang dikongsikan di kumpulan rasmi LINE.
Semalam, lebih 250 sekolah di Bangkok ditutup kerana pencemaran, kerana pegawai menggesa orang ramai bekerja dari rumah dan menyekat kenderaan berat di bandar itu.
Pencemaran udara melanda negara Asia Tenggara secara bermusim, kerana udara musim sejuk yang lebih sejuk dan bertakung bergabung dengan asap daripada pembakaran tunggul tanaman dan asap kereta.
Menjelang Jumaat, paras bahan pencemar PM2.5 - mikrozarah penyebab kanser cukup kecil untuk memasuki aliran darah melalui paru-paru - mencecah 108 mikrogram setiap meter padu, menurut IQAir.
Pertubuhan Kesihatan Sedunia mengesyorkan pendedahan purata 24 jam tidak boleh lebih daripada 15 untuk kebanyakan hari dalam setahun.
Pihak berkuasa Bangkok berkata, minggu ini, sekolah di kawasan dengan tahap PM2.5 tinggi boleh memilih untuk ditutup.
Menjelang pagi Jumaat, 352 daripada 437 sekolah di bawah Pihak Berkuasa Metropolitan Bangkok ditutup, menjejaskan beribu-ribu pelajar.
Angka itu adalah yang tertinggi sejak 2020, apabila semua sekolah di bawah pihak berkuasa bandar ditutup kerana pencemaran udara.
HUA HIN: Thailand memperkenalkan kaedah baharu bagi menangani pencemaran udara melampau menggunakan semburan kabus ais merentasi ruang udara Bangkok semalam.
Percubaan terdesak yang belum dibuktikan itu dibuat menggunakan pesawat kecil dengan jumlah kekerapan mencapai lapan kali ganda berbanding purata maksimum harian disyorkan Pertubuhan Kesihatan Sedunia (WHO).
Thailand berdepan jerebu paling teruk ketika musim kering antara Disember dan April, apabila keadaan terlalu berangin dan tiada awan untuk mendorong pembentukan hujan.
Kerajaan berusaha menangani keadaan itu menggunakan kaedah eksperimen tempatan untuk mengalihkan pencemaran udara menerusi teknik dikenali sebagai pembalikan suhu.
Teknik baharu itu pertama kali digunakan tahun lalu dan ia kini masih pada peringkat kajian.
Jabatan Pembuatan Hujan Diraja menghantar pesawat untuk menyemburkan air sejuk atau ais kering ke lapisan udara panas bagi menyejukkannya, dua kali sehari.
Dua kru melepaskan semburan itu berpandukan laluan penerbangan dipantau saintis yang menyelia menggunakan iPad ketika pesawat terbang pada ketinggian 500 meter.
Kakitangan jabatan itu memuatkan satu tan ais kering atau ais dan air ke dalam pesawat dengan peralatan penyemburan yang diubah suai, sebelum berlepas.
Sebuah pesawat lain mengukur kepekatan pencemaran sebelum dan selepas penyemburan untuk menilai perbezaan kualiti udara.
Kaedah itu dibuat berpandukan teori mengurangkan perbezaan suhu antara lapisan udara yang akan memudahkan zarah terperangkap, dikenali sebagai PM2.5, mencegahnya tersebar ke atmosfera atas.
Mengulas perkara itu, ketua program jabatan berkenaan, Chanti Detyothin, berkata ia adalah kaedah bukan konvensional dan hanya digunakan di Thailand.
"Ini bukan seperti kaedah pembenihan awan yang biasa. Kepekatan (PM2.5) berkurangan. Data di kawasan tumpuan menunjukkan debu telah hilang, namun kita akui tidak dapat mengatasi pencemaran sepenuhnya.
"Teknologi baharu ini ada batasnya. Kami bekerja setiap hari supaya Bangkok memiliki udara bersih dan sedang melakukan yang terbaik," katanya.
Kementerian Kesihatan awal bulan ini, memaklumkan bencana itu menyebabkan lebih sejuta orang sakit sejak akhir 2023, membabitkan kos rawatan bernilai AS$88 juta (RM389.4 juta).
Gabenor Bangkok, Chadchart Sittipunt, berkata keadaan itu berpunca daripada asap kenderaan, pembakaran tanaman secara terbuka dan keadaan cuaca 'tertutup', iaitu lapisan atmosfera menutupi debu, menghalangnya daripada tersebar. - AFP