Albay town under state of calamity
The local government of Sto. Domingo town in Albay has put the entire municipality under state of calamity due to lack of water supply.
Municipal Administrator Joseling Aguas on Monday, September 19, explained that the lack of water supply on the 13 barangays of Sto. Domingo is caused by the decreasing level of water in their water sources.
“Such cause is related with our very hot weather for the past months. Even our deep wells do not have water in it,” Aguas said.
Republic Act 10121 or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction Management Act of 2010 states that a state of calamity is a condition involving mass casualty or major damages to property, disruption of means of livelihoods, roads and normal way of life of people in affected areas as a result of the occurrence of natural or human-induced hazard.
Under RA 10121, the local government will be granted no-interest loans for the repair and safety upgrading of public infrastructures and facilities.
“We were given 700,000 pesos to cope with our needs. 500,000 of it will be used for drilling of possible sources [of water supply] and the remaining 200,000 will be used for fuel rationing,” Aguas said.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) said that there’s a possibility that the decreasing amount of water supply is also caused by the abnormal activities of Mayon Volcano as its alert level was raised from 0 to 1 since September 8.
The Bureau of Fire Protection, meanwhile, has started the water rationing as they continuously search and develop other water sources.
