The Parañaque City government will be constructing a disaster-resilient evacuation center to strengthen its emergency response and recovery efforts in times of emergencies such as strong typhoons, severe flooding, and other disastrous events.
Mayor Eric Olivarez disclosed that the multi-million evacuation center building will be constructed beside the city’s socialized housing project along C-5 Road Extension in Barangay La Huerta.
Olivarez said based on the engineering plan, the evacuation center is designed specifically to be disaster-resilient to ensure that affected residents have access to safe and comfortable shelters in times of emergencies.
He said the city had experienced severe flooding, strong typhoons, and the other calamities and the affected families were evacuated to school buildings, public gymnasiums, temporary tents, and other government-owned facilities.
Olivarez most of the school buildings in the country have no decent bathroom for both men and women, laundry area, as well as water supply and comfortable sleeping areas for evacuees.
“It’s the right time for the city government to build a dedicated evacuation center that has the basic facilities and adequate emergency supplies such as medicines, relief goods, and sufficient potable water, so that evacuees will no longer jam pack into school buildings and assembled tents in basketball courts,” Olivarez pointed out.
The mayor said the new disaster-resilient evacuation center will have evacuation space that can accommodate residents in case they need a safer place during the occurrence of strong typhoons and severe flooding that could threaten their lives.
Olivarez said to maintain the cleanliness and prevent the spread of diseases, the proposed evacuation center will only accommodate in every room five to eight displaced families in times of calamities.
He said the locally-funded evacuation center will be built in Barangay La Huerta where three other major projects — the materials recovery facility, the city motor pool, and the animal shelter, all initiated projects of former Mayor Edwin Olivarez — are being constructed.