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Disaster scene: Typhoon Haiyan has left over a million people homeless
Engineering charity RedR needs hundreds of thousands of pounds to help with a relief and rebuild effort that could last four years after the strongest typhoon ever, Haiyan, hit the Philippines last month.
RedR has engineers in the Philippines aiding the immediate response and assessing the rebuild requirements. The charity aims to deliver training sessions in water, sanitation, shelter and logistics to local agencies from next month.
As PE went to press, the charity had raised £60,000 and its Australian equivalent £40,000 for the relief effort. This is enough to fund training teams for just two months.
Martin McCann, chief executive of RedR UK, said the charity needed to continue the training courses for up to 18 months. He said: “We need donations to help deliver the training. There is no set target. Additional funding means I can send out teams of seven or eight engineers instead of teams of two, which is far more effective.
“The British people are very generous and in the run-up to Christmas we would ask people to donate what they can. Once we are on the ground and making a difference, it helps us make a case to the government and European Union for further funds.”
The training of locals is a disaster response tactic developed after the Haiti earthquake in 2010. McCann said local agencies were very capable and need to “own the rebuild process and be part of it”.
He added: “They were a particularly well-prepared group of people. It was the strongest ever typhoon, and 10 years ago the death toll would have been 10 times worse. But there are now 1.1 million people homeless – too many for them to handle on their own.”
The provision of shelter and water and sanitation infrastructure is the top priority, and initial relief work will focus on rebuilding homes, community centres, hospitals and schools, said McCann. Later work to rebuild bridges, infrastructure and power systems was a job for larger engineering firms and could take up to four years, he added. “It’s hard to know how much help is needed or the final bill because of the Philippines’ geography.”
Meanwhile Royal Engineers on board HMS Illustrious are helping the relief effort. A team from 24 Commando Engineer Regiment has repaired the roof of a school.
And service personnel from 3 Commando Brigade are providing engineering support to the Royal Marines.