That's no typo, this is part one of the second half. Naturally to be followed by part two of the second half tomorrow. Yes, it's because while I did ok in school at writing descriptively, I never did grasp the concept of writing succinctly...
SO, let’s start with Christmas Trees. The Filipino people
LOVE Christmas, and as you can see, they’ll ingeniously use whatever they have
available to make and decorate the trees! That Christmas came a mere 6 weeks following
the typhoon, these trees symbolize to me the resilience of the Filipino people
to fight through hardship and maintain what matters.
The next 10 or so pictures will be of the WASH team’s
activities. I spent the majority of my time on water and hygiene related
work, so not surprisingly, most of the pictures I took reflect that. Feel free to skip over any nerd speak that
doesn’t get filtered out of the following…
Our WASH technical team is composed of three local civil
engineering students in their final semester, and two of their recently
graduated classmates. We also were lucky enough to have the
expertise of one of the civil engineering professors who worked as our
warehouse crew manager while the university was out of session due to the
damage from the storm.
The first picture is a bunch of big balloon like shapes. These are water
bladders which contain 10,000L each (equivalent to about 500 Jerry Cans, or
2,500 jugs of milk). We can pack one of these systems with tap stands,
hoses, and all tools into a crate less than a 1m3 so they’re the simplest and
fastest method to provide temporary water points in emergency situations. Each
day, or twice a day if required, a water truck will come and fill up the
bladders with clean water that can then be accessed throughout the day as required by the
community. We have three bladders remaining in use now which the Catholic Relief Service is filling on our behalf. These bladders allow the actual
treatment of water to happen in one central location and then be distributed to
wherever the need is.
That’s Marc in the top left, one of our engineering interns, testing the quality of water in the bladder. I mentioned him in a previous blog as, unbeknownst to us prior, he’s also the worship leader for one of the churches that we attended. His home was also destroyed in the storm and he currently lives at with his aunt’s family along with a third family in a small three bedroom house. Yes, that’s one family per room, and a lot of people sharing what little common areas they have, for nearly three months and they don't have plans to begin rebuilding yet.
He smiles and casually shrugs his shoulders when I ask him about his living conditions, which I know are difficult. Yet, I don’t know that I ever heard him utter a complaint, or say anything negative, in all the time that we worked together.
Next, is the Living Water Treatment System which treats
water right at the point of use, thus allowing them to be placed anywhere with
a nearby source of water such as a well, or stream, etc (the middle right
picture is one of the wells that people would otherwise have to pull their
water from).
We have 10 of the systems operating right now, each serving a different community in and around Tacloban. They are quite compact and simple to run, so once we set one up and train one of the local community members to operate it, someone from our team just comes back on a weekly basis to ensure that the systems are running properly and that the water continues to be properly disinfected.
These systems have been designed and are supplied as needed across the world by Water Missions International, a far reaching ministry and critical partner in SP’s response effort. While we’re planning to transition the water bladders out within a week or two, these WMI treatment systems may be used for a number of months ahead while the municipal water systems continue to be repaired, or in some areas, while we work on more permanent solutions as described below.
Something that always never fails to impress me in
developing countries is the resourcefulness of the people to use the limited
materials they have to meet their needs.
Case in point, I have never seen this used elsewhere, but using a simple
length of pipe with a simple weld-hinged flap and a lot of brute strength
(which the Filipino people have convinced me they have no shortage of *), a
three man crew can drill a 30' well, complete with 4” casing and concrete cap
in as little as a single day! It’s this
impressive method that has allowed us to drill six wells and counting in areas
that don’t have existing water points.
Most of these areas are new places that people have resettled after
losing their homes in the typhoon which is why there were no existing water
sources.
*Sidenote: Filipinos may not be tall, but they all have the same lean yet muscular physique. It’s no wonder anymore why Manny Pacquiao is
the best pound for pound fighter in the world!
The photos here show some of the locations that we have
now installed wells at, as well as our team developing the wells for use
following the completion of the digging.
Due to the high water table in the region, these shallow wells by
themselves are not safe to drink. The
plan is to provide a tank for which the water can be pumped into after passing
through a simple chlorinator which will disinfect the water of bacterial and viral waterborne diseases.
The following photo shows the process of how another three man crew impressively builds a raised concrete stand for a 5000 litre tank that, at least mathematically, meets the CANADIAN Building Code (I checked!). They dig the holes, build the forms, bend the rebar, and with some borrowed labour, mix and finish their own concrete by hand. No machinery or electric tools here. I want to ask my trained carpenter crew at work how they would fare with the same tools, or lack thereof.
Next is the hygiene component of our WASH program. Our Hygiene team has two teachers and three
nurses, which has proved to be a great combination of teaching and presentation
skills, along with the more technical knowledge of the various diseases resulting
from lack of proper sanitation.
The program is twofold, with the team developing a
culturally relevant hygiene awareness program to teach in communities and
schools. The second is the distribution
of hygiene kits, which contain various items necessary to maintain proper hygiene.
The top middle picture is a list of the items
that should be included in each kit as agreed upon between all of the NGO’s
operating around Tacloban. The two top
left photos are the municipal records, which help us identify communities which
are in greatest need of these kits. The
top left photo is the voucher that we print and hand out to each kit recipient
prior to the actual distribution. The
other pictures are some of the stockpiled supplies in the Oriental warehouse,
and our multi-purpose distribution truck, nicknamed “The Ark”, maybe
appropriate due to its size.
The next four sets of pictures show four of the hygiene presentations
and distributions that the team completed.
They were all different but always interesting, especially with the
regular heavy rains and the general lack of sheltered areas. Distributions ranged from less than 100, to
over 700 kits each time, which also posed some logistical challenges as you can
imagine.
The first distribution was a village called
Caminishay. The village had no common
area to work with so we took up the entire narrow three way intersection in
front of their small two room community building. It was my first taste of our hygiene team in
action and I was SO impressed by their presentation!
The next distribution in Santa Elena had the least
damaged roof I’d seen in almost all of Tacloban and it’s amazing how much
easier things seem to flow when you're not battling the weather.
The third distribution was a large 750+ distribution to
Cabalowan, scheduled for the afternoon on the same day. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, this was
probably our most challenging occasion as the whole community arrived early to
line up for the distribution; there was maybe 50% roof remaining overtop that
really didn’t do much to block the heavy rains; our team had gone ahead to set up
in advance but both truck drivers got lost on their way to meet us; and then once stopped, the Ark truck wouldn’t start, effectively blocking all other vehicles on the
only road into the village. What a beautiful sight when the court emptied out after everyone had received their supplies several hours later!
Finally, the fourth distribution, a community inside the
city of Tacloban, again had no large public space to hold the distribution so again, out
everyone waited in the rain. Big
credit to the community for forming organized lines, but made it difficult for
the hygiene presenters to get their message across, even with a second
presentation to catch those at the back.
Just as Gary, my very soaked-to-the-bone eMi teammate and normally an Ohio University
professor, emphatically said to me as we unloaded trucks in the pouring
rain, “it doesn't get any better than this!” I wholeheartedly concur with that statement.
Whew… I knew I’d have plenty to say about the
WASH Programs! I'm done with them now though so I'll stop here, and continue with part two of the second half tomorrow. Thanks, again, for reading.
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