Funded by the CEI (Italian Episcopal Conference), the project, lasting 24 months, will benefit 972 families in four areas (barangays) of Cebu City: Pasil, Inayawan, Mambaling, and Quiot Pardo.
The Philippines is considered one of the countries most at risk of disasters in the world due to its hazardous location, geological features, dangerous proximity to the Pacific Ring of Fire, and a poor and highly at-risk population, impoverished socially, economically, and in terms of general public health.
Metro Cebu is the second region in terms of economic growth in the entire country. With a total population of 964,169 inhabitants (PSA, 2020), the population density of Cebu City is estimated at 3,061 inhabitants per square kilometer. The city’s population is constantly growing at high rates, as the transition from agriculture to industry has led to a consistent flow of rural inhabitants. Jobs and various sources of income in urban agglomerations naturally attract people from rural areas, where job opportunities and sources of income are scarce and limited.
The rapid population growth and urbanization of Cebu make it vulnerable to multiple types of threats and problems related to disaster risk. The dense concentration of communities in a particular area increases the degree of vulnerability to disasters and exponentially multiplies the extent of damage and disruptions caused by any type of calamity. Furthermore, social assistance services, infrastructure construction, job creation, labor market growth, and industrialization fail to keep pace with the high and ever-increasing levels of growth, density, immigration, and movement of the urban population.
The urban population of low-income workers, poor residents, and informal migrants—who make up the majority of Cebu City’s human population—live in unsafe areas. In general, these communities are often located in areas of high exposure to risks and are frequently affected by almost all classes of disasters.
One of the main disasters faced by the inhabitants of Cebu City is the control and extinguishing of fires and the response to emergencies involving life, property, and the environment resulting from fires. Fires often affect urban areas where the city’s poor live. Other significant risks of causing fires include the use of oil lamps, candles, mobile phone chargers, and electric fans connected and powered by improvised electrical wires. Informal settlements usually lack basic power outlets or simply cannot afford the services offered by companies or cooperatives that provide electricity.
During Typhoon Odette on December 16, 2021, houses built with light materials such as plywood, wooden planks, plastic sheets, amakan (dried palm leaves woven into sheets), and old rusty iron sheets for roofs were easily damaged by strong winds. Power and communication lines were destroyed, and the water supply, which depended on electricity, became very limited. Many shops and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, physically severely damaged and lacking generators, had to close. The affected families were already living in difficult situations even before the arrival of the typhoon, bearing the brunt of the economic hardships caused by the pandemic, and their conditions worsened further after the unexpected fury of nature. Government aid was insufficient and did not meet the essential needs of all the thousands of affected families.
The four poor urban settlers in the project areas are generally in economic difficulty and spend much of their time selling their labor, earning subsistence wages, and taking on debts to make ends meet and ensure they have enough to survive and live another day. With inflation and increased tax pressure, the prices of basic necessities have risen alarmingly.
The project was conceived together with the leaders of the Panaghugpong sa mga Kabus nga Taga-Dakbayan sa Sugbo, which organized the grassroots organizations in the four project areas and continues to work with the leaders of these organizations in an effort to improve their living conditions. To build disaster-resilient communities, residents must be empowered to face the negative effects of natural hazards. To generate preparedness and response in the population, it is necessary to develop a community-based disaster preparedness plan (CBDP).
Project Purpose
By the end of 2025, the population of the four poor urban communities will have developed resilience capacity in disaster management.
Objectives
The project aims to achieve the following objectives:
1. Formation of community disaster management committees in the four communities, composed of 15 members for each committee—health committee and livelihood committee.
2. Development of community profiles that include their physical, administrative, geographic, demographic, socio-economic, and infrastructural characteristics.
3. Community resource inventories are carried out to identify locally available resources that can be harnessed and enhanced for disaster preparedness and response.
4. Risk analysis and hazard maps that identify vulnerable and at-risk areas based on previous experiences, the most vulnerable groups of people, such as the elderly, disabled, pregnant women, widows, and young children, livestock, weak structures, standing crops, and livelihoods.
5. Each community develops a community-based disaster preparedness plan (CBDP) containing the main components of the CBDP.
6. Two simulation drills are conducted to verify the population’s preparedness to manage disasters.
7. An emergency list is prepared for each area, including phone numbers and contact details of all government agencies involved in disaster risk reduction and management, details of local NGOs, contact details and names of all task force members, trained manpower, and people with resources.
8. Coordination is established between grassroots organizations and their respective Barangay Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Committees in all activities.
9. Promotion of food security for residents through livelihood programs established in each community based on residents’ interests, profitability, and availability of marketable products.
Activities
1. A series of three training courses on the Community-Based Disaster Management Program (CBDM) to be attended by the Community Disaster Management Committee.
2. Training for health committees on first aid, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), trauma counseling, and stress management.
3. Organization of disaster simulation drills that allow the population to use the identified safe route and exit their homes within 3-4 minutes to reach the open spaces identified in the community maps.
4. Meetings with disaster risk reduction and management committees and government agencies involved in disaster management, to avail of their technical assistance for training people, for disaster simulation drills, and for other resources they can provide to the project, particularly for developing measures to address identified hazards and dangerous practices.
5. Training for livelihood committees.
6. Community mobilizations to develop measures to address vulnerable and at-risk areas, as well as practices that make residents prone to disasters, particularly fires and floods.
Project Results
1. Community disaster management committees in each community, adequately trained, leading the community-level disaster management program in their area.
2. Community-based preparedness plan in each community containing the community profile, resource inventory, risk map, and emergency list.
3. Health committee formed in each community, each composed of 15 members.
4. Two successful simulation drills in each community.
5. Technical assistance provided by the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Committee in each barangay and by government agencies involved in disaster management.
6. Information and mobilization actions for the population to address hazards and dangerous practices, such as cleaning waste from rivers that cause flooding, fire precautions, and fire prevention practices.
7. Livelihood programs to promote food security for residents.
Project 567/2022 "Promoting Disaster-Resilient Communities in Cebu" is carried out with the contribution of funds from the8xmille to the Catholic Church. Remember to also allocate the 8xmille to the Catholic Church.
