Pampanga’s floating shelters are lifelines in times of disaster

RECYCLED ITEMS Plastic drums and used water bottles are recycled to build floating shelters and vegetable gardens in flood-prone areas in Masantol, Pampanga. — TONETTE OREJAS

MASANTOL, Pampanga — Three floating shelters, accompanied by vegetables gardens on a buoy, were launched last week as evacuation centers for 160 families in two villages that straddle the farthest end of the 265-kilometer Pampanga River and the mouth of Manila Bay.

The village council, led by Barangay Captain Bernardo Yumang, and the Pampanga Coastal Emergency Response, headed by Felimon Viray, opened the centers at Sepung Malicaban and Sepung Nigui at Barangay Nigui and Alwang Malicaban at Barangay Balibago.

These would serve as their lifelines in times of floods and other emergencies. These were done through the project called iM Safe (Innovation in Masantol Shelter Against Flood and Emergencies) of the Center for Emergency Aid and Rehabilitation Inc. (Concern).

The lead funder of the centers is AWO International, a German professional association for development cooperation and humanitarian action.

“We’ll take care of these,” said Francisco Borja, a resident of Sitio Malikaban, when Jakob Littman, AWO head representative in South Asia, handed him a symbolic key.

Safety

Yumang said the floating shelters would help residents, especially children, women, the elderly and persons with disabilities, to immediately put themselves to safety.

These are anchored near a thick patch of mangoves. Houses stand beside narrow tributaries where grounds are protected from erosion by bamboo stacks.

The dike, where residents evacuate during floods, is a 20-minute ride by motorized banca. Floods in these parts reach between 1.52 and 3.04 meters, according to Yumang.

After Typhoon “Ondoy” in 2009, Concern first built a permanent evacuation center beside the dike at Barangay Nigui in 2010 for residents on the left bank of the Masantol side of Pampanga River.

Some community leaders said the 14-km dike, built for the flood-control component of the Japanese funded Pampanga Delta Development Project (PDDP), had failed to protect them from floods.

The widening of the mouth’s river to 750 m had displaced some 7,000 families in Macabebe and Masantol towns by the time the PDDP was completed in 2003.

Although paid for right-of way, most of them rebuilt their houses, schools and churches on the dike’s high water channel.

“The floating shelters are a pioneering project for us. These are also the first on the northern side of Manila Bay. We designed these because of the distance between the remote sitios and the dike, and considering the hazards of strong winds and high tides coming from Manila Bay,” said Mercy Cepe, acting executive director of Concern.

The shelters float on 84 empty plastic drums, which carry the 8-by-8 m bamboo floor, including the enclosed space made of plywood held together by a collapsible light steel frame.

Septic tank

A drum is made into a septic tank, which when filled, is buried. Another drum collects and purifies rainwater.

The facility relies on solar energy to run eight lightbulbs, an electric fan, a bluetooth speaker and charger for mobile phones.

A pair of floating gardens, spanning 7-by-2 m each, is tended with tomatoes and eggplants growing on organic fertilizer, making vegetables handy during calamities.