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In a succession of reports, the mass media detailed
how ill-prepared the Philippines is in dealing with natural
disasters like the recent onslaught of supertyphoon Frank.
As of Thursday, latest reports
have Frank’s overall death toll at more than 1,100, including the
700+ passengers of the ill-fated MV Princess of the Stars. Total
damages were placed at more than P4 billion as of Tuesday.
Many areas were placed under a
state of calamity, with hundreds of thousands displaced in at least
32 provinces, mostly from Regions 6, 4-A and B, 8, 3 and Metro
Manila.
Coming at the wake of every
typhoon are lost or partially damaged crops and fisheries signalling
economic doom to our poor farmers and fishers. Early estimates of
agriculture and fisheries damage is P3.3 billion. Damaged were lands
planted to rice, corn, fruits and vegetables.
Damage to infrastructures,
especially to schools, buildings, roads and bridges are tremendous,
now totaling at P750 million. Damage to schools was estimated at
P212 million. It might take years to rehabilitate damaged
infrastructures in the country.
Frighteningly, available data on
damages to date are only partial, since many areas remain
inaccessible, and data cannot be consolidated yet to give better
estimates.
Disasters, both natural and
manmade, have been a major source of poverty and vulnerability in
the Philippines. An average of 20 typhoons, accompanied by strong
winds, intense rainfall, and flooding, pounds the country every
year. In recent years hydrologic events like floodings, rise in sea
level and storm surges, have become more intense and more frequent,
presumably due to global climate change.
Natural and man-made disasters
displace at least eight million people in the Philippines every
year, with four million victims left to fend for themselves,
according to an Asian Development Bank study released in March.
The Eastern Visayas and Southern,
Central, and Northern Luzon, are among the most vulnerable to
disasters. The first two are among the country’s poorest regions.
Agriculture, the sector on which
two-thirds of the poor depend for income and sustenance, is most
vulnerable to the vagaries of climate and to the incidence of pests
and diseases, all coming in the wake of disasters.
A study released by the Asian
Development Bank in December 2007, entitled Critical Development
Constraints, noted that for 2004 to 2006, disasters, particularly
typhoons and associated hydrologic events, had adversely affected an
annual average of about 8 million people, mostly in rural areas.
This figure was an increase of
over 50 percent from the number recorded in 1994 to 2006, which
means while the requisites of disaster-preparedness are known, few
measures were set in place to cushion the effects of disasters. And
yet, these have been more intense through the years, largely due to
environmental degradation and global climate change.
Though not preventable, disasters
could be better managed if only government is ever ready to give
succor and relief to the afflicted. But the ADB study said that only
about one half of the affected people received assistance from
governments and private relief institutions. The value of the
assistance was miniscule, not even representing one percent of the
average income during “normal” times of the poorest 30 percent
of the population.
Disasters often inflict severe
damage and loss to property and destroy the only means of livelihood
for the poor. Failing to receive assistance, they risk falling to
perpetual poverty traps like debts and further immiserization on
account of lost, unretrieved resources like land and other assets.
Poverty and misery always go
where disasters had paid a visit and where there was little relief
given. Witness how many Typhoon Reming victims continue to remain in
evacuation sites in Bicol even after its visit in December 2006,
since their homes, farms and communities remain unrehabilitated.
It is good that after years of
processing and waiting, a hazard mapping project has been reportedly
finished to identify disaster-prone areas, but disaster management
goes beyond that.
Communities have to prepare for
disasters, but this is only possible when there are support measures
like communications and early warning systems; fast action in the
event of threatened roads, bridges and infrastructure; fast relief
and rehabilitation to repair vital facilities; and alternative
systems that can be set into motion should rescue and relief become
impossible for several days.
Community and local government
leaders should be ever-ready in the event of disasters, with
disaster management teams in place and mobilizable into quick
action. This actually requires community training and action, and
requires tremendous social investments to equip them.
The government’s failings in
providing quick action and relief show how little investment is made
in making our people understand and prepare for disasters. It also
explains why too much human suffering come in the wake of natural
calamities that regularly visit our land.
ngamolo@manilatimes.net
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