German government partner to re-install stolen landslide censor in Saint Bernard

By BONG PEDALINO, PIA Southern Leyte
February 7, 2011

SAINT BERNARD, Southern Leyte  –  That this municipality has always been a periodic place for a disaster-waiting-to-happen was bad enough.

Worse, an early warning device installed just three months ago in a disaster-prone, interior barangay that would have alerted authorities of an impending earth movement was taken away.

In spite of this discouraging fact, there is good news: the partner government organization from Germany which installed the stolen gadget did not “surrender” – it will be replaced and put up again not just in one barangay but two, said Mayor Rico Rentuza.

The lost censor was one of six installed at barangay Malinao sometime in November last year, and it was carted January 4, a day after the local government ordered a massive, pre-evacuation of all the residents in the area at the height of the heavy rains.

In other words, the device was spirited away during the time when no one in the barangay was looking as everybody was evacuated, Mayor Rentuza explained.

The device had stored about two months’ data at the time it was carried away, Rentuza mused.

He said the equipment was a first-time testing tool of its kind that promised to record ground-shaking as a way to predict possible occurrence of landslides so people can be duly warned and so can act accordingly.

In an interview Saturday on the sidelines of a relief goods distribution by Metrobank, Rentuza said a technical team has been conducting a survey for the re-installation of the vital device in two locations, at barangay Bolod-bolod and at barangay Tambis II.

With the survey done the soonest possible time, probably within this week, he hoped that the early warning system can be put up again, so it can serve its purpose well.

And he thanked the German government organization, GTZ, for the undying support, for the continuation of the project despite what happened.