Rebuilding Philippines could take 10 years
The Philippines’ post-typhoon reconstruction could take as long as 10 years, with the leadership of President Benigno Aquino put to a test amid complex problems such as property rights, missing title deeds and land zoning, experts said on November 27.
“The enormity of this disaster is unprecedented at least in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of the geography,” said Sanny Jegillos, coordinator for crisis prevention and recovery at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). “It’s much, much larger than the tsunami in Aceh.
The task will likely take longer and cost more than the rebuilding of Indonesia’s Aceh province after the 2004 tsunami, he said.
Super typhoon Haiyan wiped out or damaged practically everything in its path as it swept ashore on November 8, with seven-meter storm surges destroying around 90 per cent of the city of Tacloban in Leyte province alone. Haiyan killed at least 5,500 people, left more than 1,700 missing, displaced as many as four million and destroyed around $563 million worth of crops and infrastructure.
The government’s initial estimates point to a reconstruction cost of as much as $5.7 billion. Aceh’s rebuilding over eight years required nearly $7 billion, funded by the Indonesian government and international donors.
Manila has said new structures in the typhoon-prone areas must be able to withstand winds of 300 km/h, close to Haiyan’s maximum winds when it slammed into Eastern Samar province before crossing the central Philippines.
Sonny Rosal, head of the United Architects of the Philippines which is helping the National Housing Authority (NHA) design stronger houses, said there were challenges related to government buy-outs of landowners in risky areas, reestablishing title and revising the national building code which now specifies that public structures must withstand winds of only up to 250 km/h.
Meanwhile, it was reported that the Philippines, one of the world’s top rice consumers, may need to import as much as 2 million tonnes of the grain in 2014 as it looks set to miss self-sufficiency targets. That would mark the largest rice imports in four years by the Southeast Asian country, the world’s biggest buyer in 2010, when it purchased a national record of 2.45 million tonnes.
The Philippines’ post-typhoon reconstruction could take as long as 10 years, with the leadership of President Benigno Aquino put to a test amid complex problems such as property rights, missing title deeds and land zoning, experts said on November 27. “The enormity of this disaster is unprecedented at least in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of the geography,” said Sanny Jegillos, coordinator for crisis prevention and recovery at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). “It’s much, much larger than the tsunami in Aceh. The task will likely take longer and cost more than the rebuilding of Indonesia’s Aceh province after...
The Philippines’ post-typhoon reconstruction could take as long as 10 years, with the leadership of President Benigno Aquino put to a test amid complex problems such as property rights, missing title deeds and land zoning, experts said on November 27.
“The enormity of this disaster is unprecedented at least in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of the geography,” said Sanny Jegillos, coordinator for crisis prevention and recovery at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). “It’s much, much larger than the tsunami in Aceh.
The task will likely take longer and cost more than the rebuilding of Indonesia’s Aceh province after the 2004 tsunami, he said.
Super typhoon Haiyan wiped out or damaged practically everything in its path as it swept ashore on November 8, with seven-meter storm surges destroying around 90 per cent of the city of Tacloban in Leyte province alone. Haiyan killed at least 5,500 people, left more than 1,700 missing, displaced as many as four million and destroyed around $563 million worth of crops and infrastructure.
The government’s initial estimates point to a reconstruction cost of as much as $5.7 billion. Aceh’s rebuilding over eight years required nearly $7 billion, funded by the Indonesian government and international donors.
Manila has said new structures in the typhoon-prone areas must be able to withstand winds of 300 km/h, close to Haiyan’s maximum winds when it slammed into Eastern Samar province before crossing the central Philippines.
Sonny Rosal, head of the United Architects of the Philippines which is helping the National Housing Authority (NHA) design stronger houses, said there were challenges related to government buy-outs of landowners in risky areas, reestablishing title and revising the national building code which now specifies that public structures must withstand winds of only up to 250 km/h.
Meanwhile, it was reported that the Philippines, one of the world’s top rice consumers, may need to import as much as 2 million tonnes of the grain in 2014 as it looks set to miss self-sufficiency targets. That would mark the largest rice imports in four years by the Southeast Asian country, the world’s biggest buyer in 2010, when it purchased a national record of 2.45 million tonnes.
