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UNEP/OCHA JEU / Anna Nordlander, MSB February 12, 2013
Environmental issues related to Bopha/Pablo typhoon Eastern Mindanao, Philippines
Table of content
Background ............................................................................................................................................................................. 3 Debris clearance ..................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Household waste .................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Hazardous waste .................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Disaster waste management .................................................................................................................................................. 6 Shelter and housing ................................................................................................................................................................ 6 Energy ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 Deforestation .......................................................................................................................................................................... 8 WASH ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 9 Livelihood ............................................................................................................................................................................... 9 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................................................... 11
This paper was written after a secondment during January 4-‐25 2013, by an environmental expert, assigned by the UNEP/OCHA Joint Environment Unit (JEU) in Geneva to the UN mission in eastern Mindanao, after the typhoon Bopha/Pablo. The responsibilities of the position were to integrate with the clusters (local authorities, UN, NGOs) related to the environmental issues that were relevant. The environmental relevance was decided by the expert, with support from the clusters and the UNEP/OCHA JEU in Geneva.
The paper describes the basic environmental issues that were dealt with during the mission. Other environmental issues that are not covered are for example energy production, transportation and the mining activities in the area. These issues produce environmental impacts, but cannot be dealt with or solved within the humanitarian emergency phase which was the focus of the mission.
Background
The Bopha/Pablo typhoon hit Mindanao early December 2012, killing more than 1000 people, destroying homes, infrastructure, agricultural land and deforesting vast areas, causing severe humanitarian distress and pressure on the local environment.
The OCHA office of Davao was assigned support through an Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) -‐supported environmental expert, deployed through the Joint UNEP/OCHA Environment Unit, in coordinating environmental issues as crosscutting issue for the clusters. During the time of the assignment the Bopha action plan was under revision and the Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) process started. During this time there was also some severe flooding (January 20-‐21) in the area, once again targeting some of the already affected communities.
The highest priorities of the humanitarian needs are still shelter, livelihoods, food and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). The response to the typhoon is being used to further strengthen disaster risk reduction and the Government is committed to the “build back better” principle, all according to the revised Bopha Action Plan, of January 25, 2013.
Results of the typhoon passing eastern Mindanao, vast deforestation and example of the erosion process, debris clearance in Boston
The environmental effects after the Bopha/Pablo typhoon do not only originate from the disaster. Some of the environmental issues at hand prior to the typhoon was enhanced or exaggerated after the disaster. The basic environmental concerns are deforestation and waste management.
Agriculture and agriculture-‐based industries is the most prominent income source for the Mindanao economy. The basic industrial crops are bananas, coconut, oil palm, rice and other plantation crops. Other crops include mangosteen, marang, rambutan, pomelo, durian, and many more. Davao region calls itself the durian capital of the world. The agriculture section provides between 70-‐90% of the local GDP. The heavy dependency on agriculture and agroforestry has had devastating influence of the natural environment. Almost all non-‐mountainous land is used for agricultural production. This has influenced the watershed management, surface runoff and the biodiversity in the region. The biodiversity is poor with natural rainforest only present in the remote and high elevated areas.
The solid waste management practices in the area show some degree of environmental awareness, for example there seems to be a general awareness on the benefits from waste collection. Littering around public land is basically very rare. However, there is a lack of technical infrastructure. Collection services do not cover all barangays, and there are not enough collection trucks, barrels and personal protection equipment. Similarly, for waste disposal sites there is a lack of properly designed and properly located landfills. The accessibility to the used dumpsites sometimes depends on the weather situation. During the rainy season some dumpsite roads are regularly hit by landslides or other problems denying access for heavy trucks. The use of temporary dumpsites is not only caused by the typhoon; in some municipalities this happens regularly.
Debris clearance
Many governmental organisations such as the Philippines Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), international organisation such as ILO, UNDP and NGOs are assisting communities with debris clearance in different sectors. The main priority has been to clear roads and community shared spaces and facilities that need urgent recuperation. Due to the content of the debris the residue after removing of recyclable material will cause environmental concern. There is not a big amount of large scale industries in the affected area. The risk of pollutants in the debris material comes mainly from local businesses and homes. This could be in the form of chemicals used in vehicle maintenance and household
supplies. The debris itself contains large amount of biodegradable components and could when disposed of also produce polluted leachate with high nutrient content, causing oxygen depletion.
Recyclable materials are for example corrugated iron sheets that are sold for 4 pesos per kilo, construction wood that is reused for buildings or carpenting and fire wood used for energy.
Young boys working with debris clearance in Cateel, unloading residual waste at dumpsite.
The debris clearance activities are to some extent using new local dumpsites for disposing of all the material. Some of these new sites are located in improper locations. This causes local environmental distress and could also cause a health problem when attracting pests. The waste disposal sites prior to the typhoon are not properly designed and may also be located in unsuitable areas – causing leachate and pollution risk downstream. Suitable dumpsites should be found for the debris. For some municipalities this means improvement or relocation of the landfills. The debris clearance activities must take responsibility of the safe disposal of residual waste.
The debris clearance has been conducted as cash for work activities. It is important to stress the health risks involved. It is crucial to ensure that protective gear and proper tools are provided. It has been agreed within the early recovery cluster to provide tools, boots, gloves, long sleeved shirts and hats. It has also been discussed to provide tetanus vaccination and health insurance for the workers.
Once again, after the flooding a month after the typhoon, there is new debris generated that need to be addressed. The area hit with the flooding also includes new areas, not hit with the typhoon affected area such as central Davao. In these areas the risk of chemical pollution is greater and the environmental concerns should be addressed. The typhoon response did not shift its CFW activities towards these areas during the time of assignment
Household waste
Most of the municipalities have had disruption in the collection service, due to roads not being accessible within the municipalities and towards the dumpsites. The debris is often mixed with household waste since the typhoon caused interruption in the municipal services. The service break is caused by street blockages, landslides on roads leading to the dumpsites, and/or because municipal trucks are being used for debris clearance. In some areas the municipal waste collection is now running (one month after the typhoon), but the collection system and the treatment needs to be improved. The collection service reaches only the barangays close to the municipal central area. In most municipalities there is no waste collection, such as in remote or mountainous areas. This situation is the same now as prior to the typhoon. The waste that is collected is often disposed of on the same sites as the debris after the typhoon, causing the same risk of impact and need for proper action.
The Cateel dumpsite facing a valley where an irrigation pond for the rice fields is located downstream. The road to this dumpsite was blocked by the typhoon the waste in the picture was brought here prior to Bopha. UNDP has started activities to clear the road.
Hazardous waste
Within the affected area there are no major industrial sites. The main industrial activity that takes place is based on agriculture (small and large scale) and small scale mining activities. So far, no large scale environmental implications from the Bopha typhoon have been reported. Plantations and small scale farmers are using pesticides/herbicides and the small scale mining is done with the mercury or cyanide processes. These chemicals can be expected to have been released, but no reports on this have come to attention. The regular process of using these chemicals releases them to the watercourses, polluting the water and the sea. A small amount of chemicals should be expected in the debris.
The hospital and clinics have reopened after the typhoon. Many were partially damaged and three clinics were totally damaged. The local clinics and hospitals do not have a proper treatment of infectious and hazardous waste due to the interruption of the municipal service. Prior to the typhoon the waste was stored and collected regularly. The major hospitals have not been visited but are told to have proper treatment.
The hospital waste was stored in open cells at the clinics waiting for municipal service to resume, to be collected by the municipality and disposed of on the dumpsites. Improvement of the treatment of infectious and hazardous waste is essential, according to WHO guidelines and the Disaster Waste Management Guidelines. If not addressed it could cause spreading of diseases.
Hospitals and healthcare units affected by the typhoon Bopha/Pablo.
Temporary storage of health care waste at Cateel District hospital
Disaster waste management
The Joint UNEP/OCHA Environment Unit (JEU), in cooperation with the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) has developed Disaster Waste Management Guidelines. These guidelines can be downloaded or used online. They provide general know how on waste management and specifically the issues important to proper disaster waste management. It serves as a useful tool, both for debris management, household waste management and hazardous waste management after a large scale disaster. It gives basic information on proper temporary storage of waste and the possible recycling of material with guidelines, checklists and examples.
The disaster waste management guidelines can be found on:
http://www.eecentre.org/Resources/Guidelines/JEUDisasterWasteManagementGuidelines.aspx
Shelter and housing
The destroyed settlements within the affected areas have in some places been complemented with shelters, tents or bunkhouses. The majority of the people affected have moved back to their homes, repairing the houses, temporarily repairing or staying in makeshift shelters. Some of these areas are located in flood prone areas (sea and river flooding) and within areas of risk for landslides. The people living in these areas are to some extent aware of the risks, for example designing their homes on stilts where floods frequently occur. The areas prone to landslides have been mapped by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau. The mapping is an on-‐going effort aiming to gradually increase details and accuracy.
The resettling of families whose home and land have been destroyed by the typhoon should take into consideration that there is a risk of flooding and landslides. The Mines and Geosciences Bureau have assessed proposed resettlement sites and found about twenty areas suitable for resettlement. The assessment is done after requests from the local government. There is also an on-‐going reassessment of the risks for landslide. It is now conducted in 1:10 000 scale and has a four-‐graded scale instead of previous three-‐grade scale in 1:50 000.
Construction of bunkhouses in Boston for resettlement.
Example of risk map of southern part of Compostela valley 1:50 000, red indicates high risk, green moderate risk and yellow
low risk, (picture has been edited).
Example of revised risk map of Cateel 1:10 000. Risk of landslide is indicated in four grades from Very high – Low, Flood risk is indicated in four levels from High – None. The map is indicating moderate flood risk of the central area of Cateel.
Energy
Electric supply to the region has been restored in some areas, others are still without electricity from the grid. Generators are used in these areas for electricity and also liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) / solid fuel for cooking. Suitable use of energy sources should be found for especially the families living in tents and bunkhouses in order to reduce the risk for fires. Restoring electricity supply is a priority of the government, but will still take some time. The use of solid fuel for cooking should be monitored in order to reduce risks of fires during the dry season.
The process of building back better and more resilient has been implemented to some extent in the energy sector. When restoring power lines, some are being put under ground in order to be protected from the falling trees. This is a good example of how the government are putting the issue of resilience and risk reduction into practice.
Deforestation
There are two main factors that contribute to the urgency to start replanting the deforested areas. One is that the rainy season only lasts until March; when this ends the weather conditions will not be suitable for reforestation activities. The other one is that the logging and processing of fallen coconut trees has to be done within about three (six) months, otherwise the timber will start to be destroyed.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) are coordinating with The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) to engage in a programme doing logging of the fallen coconut trees, some of this is being done with cash for work activities. Produced timber will both be used for reconstruction of houses and shelters and sold as a product (form lumber). There are also other organisations engaged in logging of coconut. Even so, the manual activities cannot meet the need to address the massive amount of trees that have fallen. Some issues raised by DA include the fact that cocoa debris needs to be removed to prevent spreading of diseases, moths, beetles etc. If not removed, the possibility of replanting coconut trees might be hampered and the farmers are forced to choose other plants.
These events of logging could be interacting with activities to reforest the area. The vast need to reforest cannot be met with coconut plantations alone, due to the fact that there are not enough coconut seedlings to be distributed. This is also an opportunity to find other, more suitable, indigenous species that could improve biodiversity, contribute to local income, and be more resilient to storms.
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) are engaging in cash for work activities from the national greening program. This activity contains plantation development in remote areas during the next six months. The planned activities will support local communities in planting seeds chosen at the local level. This means that different kinds of species are being planted, mainly for agricultural or agroforestry purpose. However, this activity can only cover a small portion of the areas affected.
There are a lot of chainsaws distributed in the affected area at the moment and the ban of selling chainsaws has been lifted. The chainsaws are used for debris clearance and logging of the cocoa timber. Further on, the chainsaw abundance needs to be monitored to reduce the risk of logging activities that are contra productive towards the aim of the greening
projects. Organisations providing chainsaws should also collect them when no longer needed for debris clearance, after six to twelve months.
Coconut tree seedlings being distributed, Caraga
WASH
The camps and resettlement areas with bunkhouses are equipped with either a latrine pit or a wet solution with septic tanks. The latrine is collected and treated with dehydrated lime. The handling of excreta from makeshift shelters and re-‐established homes is poor. So far most of the excreta is treated in pit latrines, or soakpits. This is not a sustainable long term solution in the more densely populated areas. The desludging of septic tanks does not have a proper treatment in a large scale. The WASH cluster is constructing sludge treatment pits for the camps and resettlement houses but the solution is not suitable for larger amounts.
Improper treatment of excreta in pit latrines and from desludging of septic tanks could cause spread of diseases. Improper treatment could also cause risk of general environmental pollution of drinking water and the environment due to bacteria and nutrients. There is a need to further discuss the solutions between the clusters.
Livelihood
The main local source of income in the affected area is agriculture. The main crops are coconut, bananas and rice, but there are also fruits, coffee and cacao produced. Agroforestry is complemented with species produced for paper/timber such as the Falcata and for fibre such as the Abaca. The most severe destruction by the typhoon was on coconut and banana plantations. The coconut trees have either fallen or been severely destroyed in vast areas reducing the source of income from coconut harvesting. The time from replanting to harvesting of new coconut trees will take several years. The households depending on income from coconut harvesting will therefore look for other sources of income. The choice of planting new crops will have impact on the livelihood possibilities and on the environment. One of the crops that could cause severe risk for land erosion and risk of landslide is the mountain rice which in the area is cultivated through slash and burn methods. The choice to increase monoculture farming can have severe negative impacts on local biodiversity. Initial decisions on intercropping and integrated farming could improve the situation.
There are vast amount of coconut timber lying on the hills. The cocoa timber is a source of income and can be used for different purposes, for example lumber. Coconut lumber could also be used for temporary constructions or panelling. The
timber needs to be collected before it is destroyed, by moisture or insects. The collection of timber could cause a source of income and can also be integrated with reforestation activities (see chapter on deforestation).
There is interest from private companies and government to replant with other species than coconut trees. Some species that are discussed are the rubber trees and the palm oil trees. A change of crop to for example rubber trees could have some impacts on the environment. Just as coconuts could be intercropped with other species this is also the case with rubber trees. The difference is that rubber trees have a denser canopy, thus shading the ground more. Rubber trees shed their leaves, being leafless for three months per year, allowing other species to grow beneath them. The shedding of rubber trees’ leaves also increases top soil organic content, allowing the rubber tree to be self-‐sufficient on nutrients. The collection process for rubber uses some chemical additives that might cause environmental impacts.
Education
The schools have opened or are about to reopen. So far the damaged schools do not have proper amount of classroom space and material such as chairs, books etc. The schools are also lacking proper sanitary conditions and some of them lack proper drainage systems. Healthy non-‐crowded school environment is essential for avoiding spread of disease. Increase of infectious diseases will negatively impact the ability to properly handle excreta, causing disease to easily spread to many families.
The schools should take the opportunity to educate on subjects related to the typhoon. They should be provided with materials on how the community could increase their resilience in different ways. They should also raise awareness on risk reduction, and for example risk mapping could be used for educational purposes. Using discarded materials for school benches and chairs is a practical example of materials reuse and recycling. Children should also be engaged in the natural environment protection, for example in the Greening programme and MindaNow programme. These are excellent opportunities, but the basic needs for classroom space should be addressed as a priority in order to facilitate the education.
National high school in Cateel
Example of environmental marker
In the Reference guide to the consolidated appeals for 2013 CAP the environmental aspects are stressed.
A straightforward approach to environment has the following four steps:
1. Contextualize projects given the environmental vulnerabilities of areas they are located in.
2. Assess projects for potential negative environmental impacts.
3. Mitigate those impacts by modifying the project design, or compensating for negative impacts.
4. Enhance environmental benefits in the project
There are four categories of projects:
A. Projects with positive environmental impact (Marked as A) that promote sustainability and are environmentally friendly. These projects have no negative environmental impact at all and accordingly no assessment and mitigation measure is necessary. Benefits of these projects should be enhanced.
B. Projects with no or low environmental impact (Marked as B). These projects can be considered as neutral – they have neither a negative, nor a positive impact and accordingly no assessment and mitigation measure is applicable. Assessment and database compilation in agencies‘ permanent offices would be an example of a project in this category.
C. Projects with medium negative environmental impact (Marked as C). These projects potentially harm the environment and further action is required. These projects should take action to mitigate the impacts according to the sector guidance provided.
D. Projects with major environmental impact (Marked D) need to assess their environmental impact more profoundly and should develop appropriate and detailed mitigation measures. These projects should complete an Environment Assessment (EA) and develop a Environmental Action Plan (EAP).
Conclusions
Accessibility
More than a month after the typhoon, there are still some areas that have not fully been assessed due to poor accessibility. Re-‐establishing accessible routes to remote areas is an urgent task for the government, in order to assure that all needs are met. The conclusions made in this report are based on the findings made within the easily accessible areas and some second hand information about the situation in the remote areas.
Build back better
The conclusions and recommendations from the Philippine government to build back better, especially on environmental matters, should be taken seriously by national, regional and local government levels. Temporary environmentally poor solutions should be made sure to be temporary and when such actions are planned, long term environmentally sound solutions should be found.
One example is in debris management, where temporary poor solutions are inevitable at a time of crisis. However, this moment also provides an opportunity to re-‐establish proper solid waste management and develop contingency planning for future events causing a lot of debris.
To make use of the risk mapping is also essential, re-‐establishing settlements in risk prone areas should be made with caution and also with proper information on evacuation routines.
Water and sanitation
Excreta management before the Bopha typhoon was poor and after the typhoon the use of pit latrines, soak pits, open bottom sludge storage is dominating the local sanitary solution. More suitable solutions for excreta management from temporary shelters and bunkhouses could be developed on a larger scale in order to also meet the larger populations’ needs for proper treatment, i.e. build back better.
The use of environmental marker
In order to enhance environment as a crosscutting issue, self-‐evaluation of project proposals with an environmental marker could promote the environmental issues and concerns within each project. The environmental marker used in previous appeals, and its examples and findings could be applied here as well.
The problem with relying on environmental markers is that the environmental marker does not necessarily come up with solutions on how to meet the gaps, also it does not address any lack of environmental projects within a certain field.
Reforest the hills
Early recovery of livelihood and recuperation of the environment should be met with proper choice of plants for reforestation. Local knowledge of watershed management, agriculture and wildlife should be taken into consideration. The push for some varieties by the private companies should be considered for example in an EIA or lifecycle assessment.
Educate on DWM and contingency planning
Preparedness for similar situations and the debris they give rise to should be met with better preparation and improved local knowledge. Education and training in DWM management should be conducted. LGU and emergency responders such as DSWD should be targeted with this training on DWM and contingency planning.
References
Bopha action plan, 25 January 2013
Reference guide to consolidated appeals 2013
UNDAC environmental report 9 January 2013
Flash environmental assessment tool (FEAT)
Hazard identification tool (HIT)
Disaster waste management guidelines (DWMG)
Web
Risk maps by the Mines and geosciences bureau http://gdis.denr.gov.ph/mgbviewer/
Philippine coconut authority http://www.pca.da.gov.ph/
Mindanao development authority MinDA, http://www.minda.gov.ph/
