Rebuilding plan Bohol needs US$46.8M fund

TAGBILARAN CITY – A total of $46.8 million funding will be needed to rebuild Bohol’s infrastructure and victims’ lives that were damaged by the Oct. 15, 2013 earthquake.

This was the consensus arrived at during the consultative meeting between the provincial government, led by Gov. Edgar Chatto, and the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), as they formulated the Bohol Earthquake Action Plan (BEAP).

“The BEAP seeks US$46.8 million to reach 344,300 people over a six-month period,” said Paul Thomas, who co-led the humanitarian efforts to rebuild Bohol and its constituents. The plan also acknowledged that reconstruction takes time, while “recovery planning is critical at the early stages of the response.”

To raise the amount, the joint bodies have initially came up with pledges from the following:

UNICEF ($12.17 million); International Organization for Migration ($5.8 million); United Nations Development Program ($5.13 million); World Food Programme ($5 million); World Health Organization ($4.53 million); International Labour Organization ($4.42 million); Catholic Relief Services ($2.37 million); UN Population Fund ($2.3 million); Habitat for Humanity International ($1.62 million); Food and Drug Administration ($900,000); SC ($820,000); World Vision ($713,813); Adventist Development and Relief Agency Philippines with $500,000; and UN OCHA ($450,000).

If realized, BEAP will itemized the rebuilding fund into emergency shelter, amounting to $9,716,450; water, sanitation and hygiene ($8 million); health ($6.83 million); early recovery ($5.13 million); livelihood ($4.42 million); food security ($4 million); education ($2.5 million); nutrition ($2 million); protection ($1 million); logistics ($1 million); agriculture ($900,000); camp coordination and camp management ($800,000); and coordination ($450,000).

Under the BEAP, the Bohol provincial government will be the lead agency for general coordination in the overall relief efforts with the “support of national authorities.”

The plan also identifies ways to interact with local authorities, under different clusters each of which focuses on specific concerns with respective doable action schemes.

For instance, the shelter cluster has identified a total of 13,402 destroyed households and 65,815 partially damaged ones, as well as those living in hazard zones. There are temporary shelters or 608 households in five towns, and 28 out of 156 bunkhouses in Tubigon town.

The National Housing Authority is funding 38,801 households, each with P10,000 worth of materials, while the DSWD is covering 42,000 households all over the province.

In the WASH cluster, wash in schools is set up, together with hygiene promotion, restored alternative water sources, monitored water quality, capacity development for LGUs in managing water, and additional sanitation intervention and solid waste management.

BEAP has indicated that over 344,300 people have been displaced, 80 percent of whom are living in makeshift shelters built in open spaces. (FREEMAN)