Iloilo City – This southern city will be receiving 20 automatic weather stations from the Taiwanese government.

A memorandum of cooperation was signed between the city government represented by Mayor Jose Espinosa III, Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction (NCDR), National Resilience Council, and Manila Observatory on Oct. 18 in Makati City.

NCDR director Hongey Chen cited Iloilo’s knowledge-based capacity-building programs through new technologies in disaster risk reduction and management.

NCDR is under Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology and serves as technical adviser on disaster prevention and reduction.

The city government will be establishing a “command center” for disaster response and management to complement the Taiwanese weather station donation, said Mayor Espinosa.

It could be the Penthouse 2 (function room) at the seventh floor of the city hall.

Donna Magno, City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office chief, said a modern command center would be a big help in disaster preparation, mitigation and response.

Espinosa said he originally planned to build a multipurpose building to house the command center but his proposed Supplemental Budget No. 3 – where the budget for the building was included – was slashed by the Sangguniang Panlungsod./PN

SOURCE:
Tayona, G. (2018, October 27). Taiwan to give Iloilo City 20 weather stations. Panay News. Retrieved from https://www.panaynews.net/taiwan-to-give-iloilo-city-20-automatic-weather-stations/?fbclid=IwAR2KEBkkoq2xxI6Tob3q-8GzYstd0YW81tw4zeq_Umqr6boQ2zB5TV-gFpk