MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur: Officials were arranging over the weekend the delivery of potable water and water purifiers to residents of Wao and Amai Manabilang towns in this province for them to drink safe water and avoid sickness after recent strong earthquakes in southern Philippines.
The two towns were damaged by the strong tremors in the past six days, making it difficult for residents to access safe and drinkable water in the areas, the officials said.
Salma Tamano, public information officer, said the offices of Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo and Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino 4th are already arranging the delivery of the potable water and water purifiers in response to the needs of the residents.
“They are already arranging the delivery with water companies [San Miguel, Coke and Uniliver,]” Tamano added.
Relief goods and some materials for camping were earlier distributed separately by the Department of Social Welfare and Development of the province, DSWD Region 12 and the Office of the Civil Defense of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (OCD-ARMM).
The military assisted the responding agencies to ensure safety of the public since Day 1 of the earthquakes.
“As of now, safe and drinkable water is needed in the areas,” Brig. Gen. Manolo Samarita, commanding officer of the Army’s 602nd Infantry Brigade, which has jurisdiction in the areas, said.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said the tremors started on April 12 with magnitude 6.0 followed by aftershocks with magnitude 5.3 on April 13, magnitude 5.2 on April 16 and magnitude 4.3 on Sunday.
The quakes’ epicenters were all traced to Wao on the border of the provinces of Bukidnon and North Cotabato.
More than 300 aftershocks were recorded during the past six days, the officials said.
The quakes prompted the Philvocs to install Kenetic Seismograph ETNA 2 at the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO) in Wao to monitor earthquakes movement or aftershocks, they added.
They affected 658 families or 2,876 individuals in 11 villages in Wao alone while the officials are determining the number of families affected in Amai Manabilang, a nearby town of Wao formerly known as Bumbaran.
No casualties were reported in the series of quakes.
But the quakes damaged 692 buildings in Wao, including 7 chapels, 11 schools, 9 mosques, a three-story pension house and a three-story commercial building, Wao’s MDRRMO said.
Forty-five houses were “totally damaged” while the others were “partly damaged,” it added.
The management office, in a report issued on Saturday, said two roads cracked.
In Amai Manabilang, two buildings collapsed, two mosques and schools were damaged and a road also cracked, Tamano said.
A two-hectare corn and coffee farmland was also damaged because of landslide caused by the first tremor, she added.