LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – Pangasinan Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council’s (PDRRMC) best practices in Water Search and Rescue (WaSaR) were highlighted during the Uitemate 2016: 5th Workshop on the Water Rescue and Survival Research held last November 12-13 at Young Men Christian Association of Manila.
PDRRM Officer Rhodyn Luchinvar Oro was invited as a key resource speaker to present the lauded volunteer WaSaR program of the council, under the leadership of its chairman Governor Amado “Pogi” I. Espino, III.
The international workshop which centered on the theme: “The Skills Needed for Water Victims”, gathered Filipino and Japanese experts for WaSaR research and development.
“We need to excel in surface Water Search and Rescue because of the prevailing situation and topography in Pangasinan, which water-disaster prone areas could affect more than two million people in the central plains,” he said in an interview.
“The volunteer WaSaR program has been rigidly designed as that because we want to imbue in them the values of courage, service, integrity, commitment and duty, which would ultimately result into patriotic, confident and trustworthy members,” he said.
In line with the vision of the Gov. Espino to foster safety in unity, PDRRMC is on its way to multiply WaSaR volunteers and facilitate rescue volunteer groups that would augment the front liner teams.
The council has already begun conducting trainings in the local government units and is set to produce its network of provincewide WaSaR volunteers January to June next year.
Given this opportunity at the workshop, Oro said that PDRRMC has pitched its share in the international effort to achieve global disaster resiliency.
“Uitemate”, a Japanese word which means to “float while waiting” is a technique Japanese rescuers have been propagating to hasten retrieval efforts during water disasters.
By Dexter A. See