City council notes slow pace of post-Yolanda relocation in Tacloban

TACLOBAN CITY, Sept. 5 (PNA) –- The city council has tagged water and classroom shortage as the main reason the pace of transferring of families from danger zones to relocation sites is slower than expected.

Councilor Aimee Grafil, chairperson of the council’s committee on urban poor, housing and human resettlement, noted that only 1,418 houses have been occupied in six sites although there are already about 6,000 substantially completed houses.

“The city government cannot just move these families if there’s scarcity of potable water in their new homes and no classrooms for their children to learn,” Grafil said.

The Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) has approved the PHP159-million water supply plan as a medium-term solution to the water shortage problem at the Tacloban North Resettlement Area.

The Department of Education is expected to construct school buildings next year.

Citing reports, Grafil said that construction has been going full blown. Out of the targeted 10,570 units by the National Housing Authority, 9,152 are now ongoing.

During the committee hearing, Ma. Lourdes Lagman, head of the city housing and community development office, said that about 900 families are still in temporary shelters established near the northern relocation sites.

Another 800 families in coastal villages were supposed to be transferred in August, but was put on hold due to water shortage and lack of classrooms.

Minor issues hampering the relocation effort are livelihood opportunities, electricity, pollution, and availability of health facilities.

There are more than 300 families in temporary shelters up for transfer to new houses, but the government has not yet issued a certificate of occupancy, a basic requirement for the application of electrical connections.

The city council passed a resolution asking the NHA central office to immediately approve the applications of beneficiaries from this typhoon-hit city.

The committee is hopeful that after tackling all the challenges by the NHA and the city housing office, families in temporary shelters will be transferred to their permanent houses within the last quarter of 2016.

The city aimed to move thousands of families from coastal areas to northern resettlement sites after super typhoon Yolanda hit the city in late 2013. (PNA)
LAP/SQM/LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA/EGR