Philippine typhoon causes deadly floods in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos
Updated
The Philippines is bracing for two more typhoons which are expected to hit the flood-ravaged country over the next two days. Emergency teams have been scrambling to help nearly half a million people left homeless by Typhoon Ketsana, which smashed into Manila on Sunday. It's now moved on, bringing bring lethal floods to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The disaster is prompting urgent questions about the efficacy of Asia's disaster management plans.
Presenter: Claudette Werden
Speakers: Laffe Norgaard, Red Cross, Hanoi; Donna Lagdameo, Oxfam; Nokeo Ratananag, UNESCAP
WERDEN: Nokea Ratananag from
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WERDEN: Four days after tropical storm Ketsana ravaged Manila and surrounding provinces, parts of the nation's capital are still swamped under water and mud. Half a million people are in shelters queuing for food, water and medicines, in the wake of the worst floods in 40 years. The government admitted early that it was caught unprepared for Typhoon's ferocity. The aid agency Oxfam says Manila's become too complacent towards seasonal typhoons; the agency's spokeswoman is Donna Lagdameo.
LAGDAMEO: The local government units and the community are not really, the consciousness is very lax, because the warning system given to everybody was(that) it was just a normal, regular - not strong - typhoon. Actually it was signal number one and here signal number one is normal rainfall, it was not really assessed properly. The typhoon is slow moving, it will have this amount of rainfall, it will affect hightides, so all of this compounded into the lack of information, lack of early warning system, complacency, it was really not something we were prepared for.
WERDEN: Ms Lagdameo says if the government had implemented its own disaster risk policies effectively, and if weather forecasts had been more carefully analysed, people in high risk areas could have been evacuated, and lives could have been saved.
LAGDAMEO: They will have to reexamine the warning system, put in the consciousness of the people, that it's better to prepare and address the risks and the vulnerabilities of the people and really remove those who are in the danger areas, out of the way because most of the urban poor that were hit, were in the river banks and urban planning policies were not really implemented properly and added to the general problem.
WERDEN: Nokea Ratananag from the United Nations Asia Pacific development arm ESCAP says the disaster in Manila illustrates a clear need for better disaster management plans. He says those plans need to incorporate alleviating poverty.
NOKEO: The problem with most developing countries is that the poor live in the most disaster risk prone areas and that is the problem in all developing countries and in the case of Manila there is a lot of poor people living in those disaster risk areas. They know it but they are not able to live in other areas and they have to live in those areas so there is a need to address the problem of poverty.
WERDEN: Across the South China Sea, Vietnam and Cambodia - which have been lashed by the same Typhoon - have fared much better. Red Cross spokseman Laffe Norgaard says 170-thousand people were evacuated from central Vietnam in less than 24 hours, well before the storm made landfall. He says the strategy's definitely saved many lives... although many have lost everything else.
NORGAARD: Cattle will die, houses will be damaged although we try to prevent it, but not everyone can afford to live in a strong concrete house and paady fields and harvests will be destroyed, so although the loss of life is not so high at the moment, people will need assistance for the many coming months because their livlihoods have been destroyed.
WERDEN: The Philippine disaster has dominated UN climate talks underway in Bangkok, with many saying such extreme weather events are likely to become more common. If that's the case, aid agencies like the Red Cross say better preparation for severe storms is even more important. Laffe Norgaard again:
NORGAARD: Well its monsoon, typhoon season right now but as you with the Philippines we are talking about, number 18 and number 19, that's for this year, so they have had quite a lot but these ones coming now seem to be more severe than the previous ones so, Vietnam had severe ones in 2005 and 2007 and then one again yesterday night, so it seems like every second year but I don't think there is a pattern you can count on.
