Slog begins to rebuild wastelands

Soldiers arrive for security at Guiuan Airport which is operating as a forward air base for relief supplies after the typhoon hit the east coast of the Philippines.

AFP/Manila

A frantic campaign to reach millions of hungry, injured and homeless people in the Philippines following one of the world’s strongest storms is almost over.

Now the grinding slog of rebuilding begins.

Experts say it will cost billions of dollars and take years to revive communities that were destroyed when Super Typhoon Haiyan swept in from the Pacific Ocean more than a fortnight ago, killing at least 5,200 people.

At 315 kilometres an hour, Haiyan’s winds were the most powerful ever recorded to make landfall. Tsunami-like storm surges that crashed hundreds of metres  inland were even more devastating, wiping out entire towns.

Ensuring those who survived the storm did not perish in its immediate aftermath has been the top priority, with the main focus on the eastern islands of Leyte and Samar that were already among the poorest in the developing country.

The armed forces of more than a dozen countries joined a giant international relief effort, which continues to rush food, water and medicines and other emergency supplies to millions of people in isolated wastelands. With aid flowing in more easily, the Philippine government, its international partners and the survivors themselves are starting to address the overwhelming task of rebuilding so many shattered communities.

“When you have these kind of problems that are so large, everybody is actually apprehensive,” said Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla, the former governor of Leyte, who has been appointed head of the government’s reconstruction taskforce.

There is no official estimate for the recovery and rehabilitation cost, but Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan has suggested it could be as high as $5.8bn. One of the most immediate priorities in the rehabilitation effort is rebuilding or repairing homes for the 4.3mn displaced people.

More than 536,000 homes were completely destroyed, with another 500,000 damaged, according to the government.

Re-establishing a means of employment is an equally urgent task, with 5mn workers having lost their livelihoods, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Before the storm, most of the 4mn people living on Samar and Leyte endured near-subsistence lifestyles focused on rice and coconut farming, or fishing.

ILO country director Lawrence Jeff Johnson said the immediate focus on the employment front was to provide emergency jobs such as working on the clean-up operation.

In the long-run, Johnson said the reconstruction effort should not be about restoring fragile livelihoods, “but about taking the opportunity to help reduce poverty”.

“We’re going to help them build back better by teaching them new skills as carpenters, electricians, plumbers and welders,” he said.

“We will also work with them on how to set up businesses, so they learn how to run a business.”

However, farming and fishing will inevitably remain a mainstay of the economies in Samar and Leyte, and others involved in the relief effort are rushing to provide short as well as long-term support to the agriculture sector.

Rodrigue Vinet, the UN food agency’s representative for the Philippines, said seeds for vegetables were being sent to farmers so they and their families would be able to have their own food grown within a few months.

Vinet said work must also start immediately to fix irrigation channels and other farming infrastructure so rice crops could be grown in time for harvest in October next year.

“If they do not have that harvest, they will rely on very expensive food aid for a long time,” he said.

An over-arching theme of the reconstruction effort is trying to ensure communities are less vulnerable to future storms.

“We should look at disaster resiliency... recovery has to happen within the context of better development,” UN Development Programme regional disaster adviser Sanny Jegillos said at a news conference in Manila.

While Haiyan was one of the strongest typhoons on record, the Philippines is hit by about 20 major storms each year — with Samar, Leyte and other mostly poor eastern islands on the frontline. With climate change threatening to increase the ferocity and frequency of such storms, many involved in the reconstruction effort understand that building more homes in vulnerable areas will inevitably lead to another disaster.

“Maybe it’s not just a question of ‘build back better’ but also build back differently and elsewhere,” said David Carden, head of the UN’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Philippines.

Speaking on ABS-CBN television, Energy Secretary Petilla said the government was focused on improving disaster resiliency, but had not yet come up with answers to key issues.