Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and the RAY plan

Citation

Amaratunga, D. (2014), "Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and the RAY plan", International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, Vol. 5 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJDRBE-01-2014-0006

Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and the RAY plan

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, Volume 5, Issue 1

Disasters caused global economic losses of about $130 billion (€94.5 billion) in 2013, according to Swiss Re (2013). November 2013 Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines was the deadliest single disaster, killing more than 7,000 people, Swiss Re noted.

Haiyan reduced almost everything in its path to rubble when it swept ashore in the central Philippines on 8 November 2013, killing at least 6,102 people, with nearly 1,800 missing, at least 3,424,593 families or 16,078,181 people in 12,139 villages in 44 provinces were affected while 890,895 families or 4,095,280 people were displaced.

The number of casualties is now one of the most destructive disasters in the country’s history. This disaster reverses the ongoing trend of reduced mortality due to disasters in the Philippines, despite an increasing number of disaster events (National Economic and Development Authority of the Philippines, 2013).

The United Nations (UN) announced an appeal for $800 million of funding to provide 12 months of assistance for 14 million people affected by Haiyan, the strongest typhoon to ever hit land. The funds would be used to provide access to food, shelter, water, health and sanitation services. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stepped up an appeal for funds to help the Philippines recover from a devastating typhoon last month after visiting stricken areas: "I was very saddened by what I have seen in Tacloban – total destruction, and an enormous number of people have been lost, we need to support them" (Reuters, 2013).

President of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino unveiled the government’s 361 billion pesos ($8.2 billion) reconstruction plan, appealing for help from donor agencies and the international humanitarian community as he promised corruption-free use of aid (National Economic and Development Authority, 2013a, b). The National Economic and Development Authority of the Philippines (2013) has released this "Reconstruction Assistance on Yolanda (RAY)" plan, outlining a PHP 360.9 billion (USD 8.17 billion) recovery and reconstruction investment requirements over the next four years to address damage and losses estimated to be PHP 571 billion (USD 12.9 billion).

Of the above total, 90 percent of all damage and losses are from the private sector, mainly in terms of lost housing, industry and services, and agriculture. This is a consistent figure for the Philippines. Previous disasters, Ketsana and Parma in 2009, resulted in the private sector sustaining a similar 90 percent of the damage and losses.

These economic losses in Philippines are part of a global trend: globally, economic losses from disasters are "out of control" and will continue to escalate unless disaster risk management becomes a core part of business investment strategies. Direct losses from floods, earthquakes and drought have been underestimated by at least 50 percent. So far this century, direct losses from disasters are in the range of $2.5 trillion (Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction, 2013).

Further, the UN’s (2013) Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction highlighted the vulnerability of the Philippines’ fiscal balances from typhoons because of higher spending and lower revenue. "The Philippines has constantly experienced financing gaps owing to disasters since 2000", the report said. It added that countries that experience such severe typhoons will "experience lower GDP growth in the 15 years that follow compared with the estimated growth that would have occurred without cyclone impacts" (Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction, 2013).

The Reconstruction Assistance on Yolanda (RAY) (Development Authority of the Philippines, 2013) plan proposes to address private sector damage and losses by re-establishing plantations, repairing infrastructure, replacing equipment and distributing poultry and draft animals for farmers, food packs, shelter, and materials to build boats for fishermen, and providing support through loan restructuring, and refinancing, and guarantees. This highlights the crucial role of the private sector in reducing risks. The recovery and reconstruction would therefore need to ensure that not only are the private sector rebuilt back, but are made more resilient, addressing the fundamental vulnerabilities they had before the disaster such as safer construction practices. There is now considerable evidence that strong building codes can significantly reduce losses.

A study on residential wind damage following the 2005 Hurricane Katrina in the USA by Louisiana State University Hurricane Center found a possible reduction of losses from $4.8 billion to $1.7 billion if the buildings in the affected areas were built better, for example if they had protected building openings, improved roof-deck connections, and improved roof-to-wall connections (Friedland, 2009). Japan for example, reviews its building codes each time there is a major disaster affecting the country. With the 2011 East Japan earthquake and tsunami has started debates on the inclusion of larger and more extensive designs of buildings along the coast.

RAY plan should not forget the lessons learned from past disasters in the region, for example, "Lessons for a safer future: drawing on the experience of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster, eleven key actions for building nations’ and communities’ resilience to disasters" (UNISDR, 2006). This report draws on the experiences of many organisations and individuals during and following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. This report identifies many lessons and the recovery of the affected nations and communities and the need to reduce the risks of disasters.

For example, the Philippines can promote the development of stronger building codes for exposed assets. There is a need for the Philippines to start addressing the underlying drivers of risks, which are accumulating at a greater pace, that the rate by which it can reduce it through development investments. Strengthening disaster risk management, and in particular reducing the underlying drivers of disaster risk, remains vital for the future resilience of the Philippines.

In this first issue of Vol. 5, there are a number of papers pertinent to the current situation in the Philippines. Opening the issue Mazza, Pino, Peretti, Scolta and Mazzarelli investigate if knowledge of the reconstruction phase has an influence on the satisfaction of citizens. Five hundred and three residents in L’Aquila city, struck by an earthquake in 2009, were surveyed to examine the satisfaction level, understanding of political issues and the resiliency skills of individuals. Their findings show that a lack of information about the work government has caused dissatisfaction among the citizens who feel that they have not been well informed about the rebuilding on the city.

Next, Rotimi and Wilkinson explore improvements to environmental management legislation that will enable the implementation of post disaster reconstruction activities after the built environment has been affected by a natural disaster. Their study collates opinions from building and development control officers and other disaster practitioners based in New Zealand to determine the practical implication of implementing reconstruction arrangements. Their results show that the current reconstruction framework in New Zealand may cause procedural constraints and become burdensome to property owners who desire early recovery from a disaster event.

In their paper, Amini Hosseini, Hosseini, Hosseinioon, Izadkhah, Shaw, and Takahashi introduce the activities carried out for preparing evacuation plans in Tehran and the challenges observed for involving local communities in earthquake risk mitigation. The methodology developed in their research provides practical means for promoting public participation and earthquake risk mitigation. Furthermore, their paper proposes some measures for involving local communities in risk reduction activities.

In the fourth paper, Ahmed and McEvoy review major resettlement programmes that were implemented in affected countries after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, including Sri Lanka and India. Using interviews of residents and representatives of agencies involved in planning and implementing the resettlement programmes, and onsite observations, their investigation examined critical aspects of settlement development including site planning, transport, drainage, water supply, sanitation, waste management and security.

Amaratunga discusses a pilot in-progress project to promote community-based research (CBR) as a tool for disaster resilience planning in rural, remote and coastal communities. Using trans-disciplinary approaches, this project demonstrates how emergency and foresight planning in five rural Canadian pilot communities can be enhanced through the co-design of a pilot Web 2.0 "Virtual Community of Practice" (VCOP). Their VCOP foresight planning paradigm challenges the status quo design and delivery of emergency management protocols from traditional "centres of knowledge and power", e.g. governments and universities and fosters "bottom-up" community-driven planning to anticipate risks and threats and help enhance local capacity for resilient disaster recovery.

In the final research paper of this issue, Hettiarachchi, Athukorale, Wijekoon and de Alwis present a long term research project to understand the nature and extent of degradation in a selected segment of the Colombo flood detention area (CFDA) wetlands in Sri Lanka. Their study qualitatively explores the gradual process of change in watersheds and the wetland ecology affecting flood control services, thereby leading to full-blown disasters. Their findings underline the importance of protecting the ecosystem health of urban ecological features for strengthening the disaster resilience of cities.

In addition to the six research papers, Korstanje provides a review of The Black Death Transformed: Disease and Culture in Early Renaissance Europe, by Samuel Cohn Jr, a book that reflects on the devastating plague that hit Europe from 1347 to 1350.

The first of two doctoral abstracts is provided by Temitope Kikelomo Egbelakin, with her study on "Incentives and motivators for enhancing earthquake risk mitigation decision". The second doctoral abstract is by Krisanthi Seneviratne, with a study on "Managing housing needs in post conflict housing reconstruction".

Concluding the issue, are two news articles from the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. The first, "How safe is your school?", describes a crowd-sourcing initiative in support of a global programme for school safety. The second article details the criteria and application procedure for the Philippines Resilient Cities Award 2014, which recognises communities that have excelled in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.

Dilanthi Amaratunga and Richard Haigh

References

Friedland, C. (2009), Residential Building Damage from Hurricane Strom Surge: Proposed Metholodigies to Describe, Assess and Model Building Damage, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Baton Rouge, LA

National Economic and Development Authority (2013a), P361 Billion Needed for Yolanda Recovery, Reconstruction, available at: http://www.gov.ph/2013/12/18/p361-billion-needed-for-yolanda-recovery-reconstruction/

National Economic and Development Authority (2013b), Reconstruction Assistance on Yolanda, National Economic and Development Authority, Manila

National Economic and Development Authority of the Philippines (2013), Investment Requirements for Recovery and Reconstruction, available at: http://www.neda.gov.ph/?p=2011

Reuters (2013), "UN’s ban calls for more funds for typhoon-stricken Philippines", available at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/21/us-philippines-unitednations-idUSBRE9BK08A20131221

Swiss Re (2013), "Disaster losses $130 billion in 2013", available at: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gjKl1nPIEqvf8GH2FzLZglnKo3FA?docId=eee60353-2d7a-428e-8700-9791ec67014b; http://www.swissre.com

UNISDR (2006), Lessons for a Safer Future: Drawing on the Experience of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Disaster, UNISDR, Geneva

United Nations (2013), Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction – From Shared Risk to Shared Value: The Business Case for Disaster Risk Reduction, United Nations, New York, NY