Homeless in Cebu

With the country hit regularly by typhoons, torrential floods, killer landslides, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, by now there should be a high level of preparedness and mitigation protocols for disasters.

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The scenes in Cebu following the magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck the province on Sept. 30 show that this has not been so.

A week after the earthquake, many of the affected communities continue to lack the most basic needs, particularly safe water and emergency shelters. The earthquake caused heavy damage to water pipes and electrical and telecommunications networks. With no electricity to run pumps, small suppliers of filtered drinking water could not resume operations.