8th February 2014 marks exactly three months
after Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda). On this day, I was fortunate to be standing and
witnessing the “change” in Tacloban …
I could visit Tacloban, one of the most severely affected
areas, at the 3 month timing after the typhoon. I was nervous in the plane by
thinking what would be standing or not in front of me when I land.
Before landing, I saw seemingly many houses from the sky,
which surprised me in a positive way. Once being out of the Tacloban airport though,
I started to see more shelters, damaged buildings and houses with roof covered
by tarpaulins. At the same time, however, I also observed the daily vive with
busy traffic, children walking in school uniform and shops with food and other
products.
One of the purposes
of my visit to Tacloban was to attend a regional planning workshop between
UNICEF and Local Government Units (LGUs) for the joint Haiyan response and
recovery. This partnership aims to support LGUs in order to build back better
the existing system of education, health & nutrition, child protection and
water, sanitation and hygiene, and how to be better prepared for future
emergencies at community level.
During the lunch
time of the workshop, I could talk to a participant from the Disaster Risk
Reduction Management Council of one municipality. He shared with me his
experience just before, during and right after this historical typhoon: how he
monitored the path of the typhoon, informed the population in his municipality
to first voluntarily evacuate then ordered forced evacuation to those in coastal
barangays (villages) when the typhoon was approaching with much stronger power
of destruction than expected.
He was doing all he
could at the time for the entire municipality as his duty. But at the same
time, he was particularly concerned of his wife and children, including less
than 10 month old daughter, whom he had left at home since his house was not
near the coast. “It was the biggest regret- I should have evacuated my family
first to much safer and far from the sea”, he recalls.
After the typhoon
passed, he managed to reach home by walking in the middle of debris. His family
was safe although his house was damaged. The most relief for him was the smile
of his youngest daughter when she saw him while an older son was crying. He was
firm, “I will not repeat the same mistake for my family and municipality ever
again”. I hope this partnership agreement between UNICEF and LGUs will help to
materialise his commitment.
Following day, I had
chance to visit a municipality, called Dulag, about one hour from Tacloban City,
where the parents of one of my colleagues live. By driving the coastal line
toward Dulag, I could see more damaged factories, large buildings and people still
living in tents. But the most shocking scene was the scattered areas of coconut
trees of which many were uprooted or cut off a few meters from the ground.
When we met the
colleague’s parents, her dad told us that in his land, only about 30 out of 130
coconut palms survived. He is not so certain whether he would replant new trees
because “I am already a retired man and it will take 6-8 years to grow and
about 15 years to harvest good coconuts”, he said.
Meanwhile, he is processing
the turned down coconut trees to woods and also drying coconut husks and shells
to sell. Unlike him who has still other livelihoods apart from coconut farming
for additional income, he is concerned of other purely coconut farmers. “They
are struggling for the livings”, he said. A few of them were helping to make
the base of his garage for some small cash when we were there.
I had only a few days to visit Tacloban and its
surroundings. So my observation and impression does not reflect the reality of
everyone. From what I saw and heard, nevertheless, I have a mixed feeling:
While I was impressed of the sign of a rapid recovery of daily life with energy
and smile of local people, I could see the long-time ahead of them to deal with
the large scale coconut palm damage and rehabilitate the affected areas. The
community, including children, the government and us need to keep working
together to build back better and be better prepared in the future.
