Six months after Typhoon Haiyan, the inhabitants of the Philippines' central islands continue to heal their wounds. Swiss Humanitarian Aid is continuing its medium-term commitment to support efforts to rebuild the devastated areas. Its priorities are to rehabilitate schools, renovate drinking-water distribution systems and provide livelihoods for the population.
On the night of Friday, 8 November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan devastated large swathes of the Philippines' central islands. At the height of the crisis, Switzerland deployed in total around 40 experts from the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit (SHA). For several weeks, the experts organised and distributed emergency aid to meet the most important needs of the affected populations.
With winds exceeding 300 km/h and a tidal wave reaching several meters high in places, Haiyan is the strongest typhoon recorded to date. According to the Philippine authorities, the super-typhoon has affected more than 14 million people and caused the death of thousands of people. It is estimated that more than a million homes have been destroyed or damaged.
Recovery after emergency aid
Swiss Humanitarian Aid continued its emergency phase until mid-January. In February 2014, it launched a new phase of medium-term commitment to support efforts to rebuild the devastated areas.
This new phase focuses primarily on rebuilding the roofs of school buildings, renovating systems to distribute drinking water, and rehabilitating livelihoods. It is expected that by the end of July more than thirty classes in 12 schools will have been rehabilitated, as well as about ten drinking-water distribution systems. These actions are also focused on rural areas. To date, SHA experts have rehabilitated four classrooms and built two new temporary schools. The construction of three additional schools of this type is currently in progress.
These projects are being carried out under the supervision of four SHA experts in the municipalities of Matag-ob and Kananga (province of Leyte) and Daanbantayan (province of Cebu). UN Habitat has also been provided with an SHA expert who works in Manila and Roxas to support the efforts of the UN agency for quality standards to be adopted in housing reconstruction.
Swiss Humanitarian Aid has also made it possible to allocate 130 traditional fishing canoes to families so that they can resume work. The tidal wave caused by the typhoon destroyed most of the fishing boats in the region, depriving hundreds of families of their main source of income.
Multilateral aid assures a good harvest
In parallel, contributions from Swiss Humanitarian Aid to its multilateral partners have helped fund operations whose benefits extend far beyond the emergency phase. A case in point is the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). In the aftermath of the typhoon, thousands of hectares of rice fields were destroyed. Swiss Humanitarian Aid immediately funded FAO operations to distribute rice seed to more than 44,000 farmers so that they could replant their crops in time before the rainy season. Each of these farmers received more than 40kg of rice seed which will produce about two tonnes of rice on the equivalent of a hectare. This amount can feed a family of five for a year and generate vital income for farmers.
Together with other donor countries, Switzerland has contributed to gather more than USD 5 million for emergency agricultural assistance carried out by the FAO in the Philippines. The amount of rice produced from this contribution will feed a total of more than 800,000 people for a year. The value of the harvest is estimated at more than USD 84 million, or 17 times more than the initial amount spent.