Three years after the typhoon destroyed more than a million homes and killed 6, people, the Philippines has fallen far short on house-building pledge. W hen Typhoon Haiyan smashed into the city of Tacloban in the central Philippines almost three years ago, Arsenio was one of the lucky ones β he survived by swimming a kilometre to safety.
And yet, there is a good chance he will. The archipelago nation is regularly rocked by storms that are predicted to get stronger and more frequent due to climate change. And the year-old shopkeeper is still living in the same place: the Seawall barangay neighbourhood , which is strung along the coast of Tacloban.
The strategy included relocating people away from coastal areas that are almost sure to be hit again. So far, the plan has been a failure, at least in terms of numbers. In the aftermath of one of the worst natural disasters ever to hit the Philippines , the government of then president Bignino Aquino III pledged to build , homes to accommodate about one million people living in coastal danger zones. They include residents of Seawall who, like Arsenio, rebuilt their homes after the storm.
Their homes are shacks made from what could be found in the wreckage or was donated by charities β plywood, sacking and corrugated iron. Some jut out into the sea, supported on stilts, and are connected to the land by single wooden boards. Joyce Sierra, advocacy officer at Social Watch Philippines , said many survivors of Typhoon Haiyan β known locally as Yolanda β had to rebuild their lives with little or no assistance, which pushed them deeper into poverty.
But constructing new homes is not the end of the problem. Even survivors who are offered the chance to relocate sometimes decide against it, because the inland safe zones are far from their where they work β usually in the fishing industry.
