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 The exhausting journey is necessary because safe water is
desperately scarce in this storm-ravaged portion of the Philippines.
Without it, people struggling to rebuild and even survive risk
catching intestinal and other diseases that can spread if they're
unable to wash properly.
While aid agencies work to provide a steady supply, survivors have
resorted to scooping from streams, catching rainwater in buckets and
smashing open pipes to obtain what is left from disabled pumping
stations. With at least 600,000 people homeless, the demand is
massive.
"I'm thirsty and hungry. I'm worried — no food, no house, no water,
no money," said Estember, a 50-year-old ambulance driver.
Thousands of other people who sought shelter under the solid roof of
the Tacloban City Astrodome also must improvise, taking water from
wherever they can — a broken water pipe or a crumpled tarp. The
water is salty and foul-tasting but it is all many have had for
days.
The U.S. Institute of Medicine defines an adequate daily intake of
fluids as roughly 3 liters (100 ounces) for men and about 2.2 liters
(75 ounces) for women. Given the shortages and hot climate, it's
certain that most in the disaster zone aren't getting anything like
those amounts, leaving them prone to energy-sapping dehydration.
Providing clean, safe drinking water is key to preventing the toll
of dead and injured from rising in the weeks after a major natural
disaster. Not only do survivors need to stay hydrated, they also
need to be protected from waterborne diseases such as cholera and
typhoid.
Haiti's devastating 2010 earthquake was followed by a cholera
outbreak that health officials say has killed more than 8,000 people
and sickened nearly 600,000. Some studies have shown that cholera
may have been introduced in Haiti by U.N. troops from Nepal, where
the disease is endemic.
Washing regularly, using latrines and boiling drinking water are the
best ways to avoid contracting diarrhea and other ailments that
could burden already stressed health services.
It took several days for aid groups to bring large quantities of
water to Tacloban, the eastern Philippine city where the typhoon
wreaked its worst destruction. By Friday, tankers were arriving.
Philippine Red Cross workers sluiced water into enormous plastic
bladders attached to faucets from which people fill jerry cans,
buckets, bottles and whatever other containers they might have.
"I'm thirsty," said Lydia Advincula, 54, who for the last few days
had been placing buckets outdoors to catch some of the torrential
downpours that have added to the misery of homeless storm survivors.
Water provisioning should get a big boost with the recent arrival of
the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS George Washington, a virtual
floating city with a distillation plant that can produce 1.5 million
liters (400,000 gallons) of fresh water per day — enough to supply
2,000 homes, according to the ship's website.
Britain also is sending an aircraft carrier, the HMS Illustrious,
with seven helicopters and facilities to produce fresh water,
Britain's Ministry of Defense said. It said the ship is expected to
reach the area about Nov. 25.
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Filtration systems are now operating in Tacloban, the center of the
relief effort, and two other towns in Leyte province, the
hardest-hit area. Helicopters are dropping bottled water along with
other relief supplies to more isolated areas.
Other more high-tech water purification solutions are also
available, such as water purification bottles developed since the
2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that devastated parts of Thailand,
Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka. Those contain systems that filter
out parasites, bacteria and other dangerous substances from
virtually any water source, making it safe to drink and alleviating
the high cost and logistical difficulties that shipping in bottled
water entails.
Longer-term water solutions will come once the crucial issues of
shelter and security are settled and will likely have to wait
several months, said John Saunders, of the U.S.-based International
Association of Emergency Managers. Those water systems are far more
complex, requiring expensive, specialized equipment and training for
operators, he said.
"I can bring in a $300,000 water system that provides thousands of
liters per day of drinking water, but who pays for the system and
how is it maintained and distribution managed?" Saunders said.
Long-term solutions are a distant concern for Jaime Llanera, 44, as
he stands in a shelter he and his family have fashioned out of
broken plywood and a tarpaulin.
A single 500-milliliter (12-ounce) bottle of mineral water delivered
by the military three days earlier is all that's available for his
parents, sister, brother-in-law and a friend. To stretch their
supply, they've been collecting rainwater in buckets and any other
containers they can find and boiling it. They're also using
rainwater to clean: His mother dunks clothing into a bucket of
rainwater and tries to scrub out the filth.
The family plans to wait one more week. If help hasn't come by then,
they'll try to find a way out of Tacloban so they can stay with
relatives elsewhere. "We have no house. We have no home. But we're
still intact," Llanera said.
[Associated
Press; CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, and
KRISTEN GELINEAU]
Christopher Bodeen
reported from Beijing.
Copyright 2013 The Associated
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