Pessimistically Optimistic??
Monday, August 13, 2012
FOREWORD
How could one so pessimistically optimistic that it expects another flood deluge instead of expecting for optimistically no more deluge to come but the sunny day will come to breathe fresh new beginning..
Hay wishing and praying for another Deluge???
SOURCE :
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More rain forecast for the Philippines
Updated
Philippines officials are warning of a new tropical depression, that is expected to strengthen monsoon rains in the already rain-soaked regions of Southern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
More than three million people have been affected and as many as 770,000 people have been made homeless.
Associate Director of World Vision Philippines, Mimi Ochavillo, has told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program that while aid agencies are delivering emergency items as quickly as possible, it's a slow process hindered by flood waters that are still knee-deep in some areas.
"The need is still very big, we were only able to distribute to 1,000 families, so the need is still huge," she said.
"That's only to 1 of 31 cities in metro Manila, not talking about the 16 provinces around the country."
Amid the ongoing relief operation, aid agencies are concerned about the outbreak of diseases.
The Philippines Government says water purification tablets are being distributed and mass immunisations carried out to prevent the spread of diseases such as the flu.
Aid agencies have distributed food packs, tanks of clean water and portable latrines to around 950 evacuation centres around the country, but Ms Ochavillo says some evacuation centres are still lacking essential relief items.
With more rain expected, she says the government may need to prepare more evacuation centres.
"We don't need more rain but if that's going to happen, the government will simply find it hard to come up with more makeshift evacuation centres," she said.
"So at this time, we really need to do something about it."
Topics: floods, philippines, asia
First posted
Manila floods could be repeat of Typhoon Ketsana
Whenever I read reports of a flood, I imagine a powerful river, swift-moving and ice-cold. The Colorado River transplanted to an unsuspecting town.The flooding in Manila, the Philippines is nothing like that.
Manila has seen two weeks of persistent, torrential rainfall a mix of a lingering typhoon and the southwest monsoon. About 2.7 million people are now estimated by local authorities to be affected, with 440,000 in just 940 evacuation centers.
A patch of blue sky emerged overhead on Sunday, but the emergency is far from over. The accumulated rainfall now fills many of Manila's streets stagnant, stinking, and swill-like. It barely moves, even as people, bicycles, motorbikes, make-shift boats, and vehicles plow through the water to work, mass, or the market. In some areas, the water rose to chest level, and in extremely flooded areas, head-high. It is hard to see more than a few inches deep, but every imaginable thing seems to be floating in the water. The flood seemed to have brought all of Manila's grit and garbage to the surface. There is nothing cleansing about this flood.
It is a familiar sight. I was in Manila in 2009 when Typhoon Ketsana hit. It triggered the worst flooding in decades Manila Bay and the nearby lake expanded, rivers overflowed their banks, and homes filled with water. The floods did not subside for several months. Human and rodent excrement found their way into the water, unleashing a deadly cholera and leptospirosis epidemic. Working in the evacuation centers around Manila, I met parents who lost their children in just hours to diarrhea.
So despite the break in the weather, I continue to worry that this could be a repeat of Typhoon Ketsana. All of the conditions for disease are present, such as standing and polluted water, inadequate or nonexistent sanitation, as well as hundreds of thousands of people in tightly-packed evacuation centers.
I visited an evacuation center where over sixty people sleep in three school classrooms and share one toilet. Because of the standing water, the city shut off electricity in the area, so the toilet does not flush. Another evacuation center is so crowded that several families live in an abandoned building on the grounds. They designated an open area under the staircase as the 'bathroom,' where children are told to defecate.
Children should not be made to live in such conditions. All children, including those in disaster conditions, have the right to a decent standard of living. So much is needed potable water, emergency toilets, bathing facilities, promotion of sanitation practices, mobile medical clinics, medicine, and more. Help needs to arrive, quickly.
