Samar receives automatic weather station device

By Ninfa Iluminda B. Quirante

Thursday 2nd of August 2012

CATBALOGAN CITY, Samar, Aug 2 (PIA) -- The Samar Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Council (PDRRMSC) has received an automatic weather station (AWS) device to be used for saving crops and livestock.

In behalf of the DRMMC, Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan accepted the device from the Weather Philippines Foundation Incorporated (WPFI).

The council, composed of local department heads and national government agencies, concurred with the suggestion of Provincial Agriculturist Anita Taran to put up the weather device at the Regional Integrated Agricultural Research Center (RIARC) in San Jorge, Samar to be used by agriculturists and livestock farmers.

“The data from the AWS device will be very helpful to the farmers in the San Jorge-Gandara area-whose crops and livestocks are at risk during bad weather days,” Taran said, during the meeting of the PDRRMC yesterday.

To formalize the process and ensure that the maintenance and sustainability of the AWS device, a memorandum of agreement (MOA) will be executed by WPFI and the Department of Agriculture – Region 8, which supervises the RIARC in San Jorge, Sar.

Pagasa and DOST officials said a MOA is needed to ensure the responsibility of the parties on the care of the weather device.

DOST and Pagasa reminded recipients of the device to make sure that it is fenced and well maintained to ensure the data dispatched will really serve its purpose, which is to warn the farmers of impending disaster like abnormal rainfall and destructive weather condition. (NBQ/ PIA 8-Samar)