Yolanda survivors hired to clear mountains of waste

TACLOBAN CITY , Philippines   â€“ Tens of thousands of desperately needed jobs are being created for survivors of catastrophic Typhoon Yolanda by hiring them to clear mountains of waste from ruined cities and farms.

United Nations agencies are spearheading the cash-for-work programs, which they hope will provide a triple-boost to communities destroyed by the typhoon, with lifting morale as vital as cleaning up and helping economies.

“This is not only important to help normalize the economy, but working puts a sense of dignity back in their lives,” said Tim Walsh, leader of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) team deployed to the worst-hit city of Tacloban and nearby areas.

The UN, working in partnership with the Philippine government, is hoping to create at least 200,000 jobs that could last for up to three years.

Walsh said their immediate task was to help clear the mountains of rotting garbage and debris, which is necessary to allow for faster transport of aid and delivery of other essential services.

As much of the material as possible will be recycled.

Yolanda, the most powerful typhoon ever recorded to have hit land, slashed across mostly poor central islands of the Philippines, killing more than 5,500 people and destroying or damaging the homes of four million.

Giant storm surges generated by the typhoon were more destructive than the winds, powering more than one kilometer inland on the islands of Leyte and Samar.

Dozens of coastal communities were obliterated, as the water crushed homes, fishing boats, vehicles, electrical posts and virtually every other piece of urban infrastructure.

Vast stretches of coastal rice farms were also contaminated and their irrigation channels destroyed, while the wind tore down millions of coconut trees that were a mainstay of the already extremely poor islands.

Leslie Wright, a spokeswoman for the UNDP team in Tacloban, said the cash-for-work program was similar to an effort in Indonesia’s Aceh region after one of the world’s most devastating tsunamis killed 170,000 people there in 2004.

“Some of the things we are seeing that are comparable to Aceh include the consistency of the debris – like the wood, the metal, rock and concrete, aside from the organic waste and the bodies still being extracted every day,” she said.

The volunteer workers are being paid between P250 and P500 a day to haul the debris to selected collection points, where trucks pick them up to be taken to a temporary landfill outside the city for sorting.

“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 UNDP. “It’s much, much larger than the tsunami in Aceh.

“The rehabilitation cost will be more expensive for Haiyan, because a unit of a school will be more expensive than a school built in Aceh because of the design parameters.”