CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Residents are having a hard time moving on. They have started clearing the mud and debris from the damaged houses, but mountains of garbage remain uncollected.
“We hope government would help us in cleaning up,” resident Richard Legaspi said.
Nearly 10 days after Sendong ravaged their communities, residents are still desperate for relief — relief from the piles and piles of debris, flood-damaged appliances and other unsalvageable personal effects that have been blocking roads, pathways, sewage systems.
The smell of death permeates the air. Dead pets and livestock are stuffed in sacks and piled together with still uncollected garbage.
Elena Naliponguit, 53 and resident of Barangay Consolacion, said they were cleaning up but the amount of damage would be simply overwhelming.
“We need volunteers to help us rebuild,” Naliponguit said.
“But we can not start rebuilding with all these garbage lying around,” she added.
Naliponguit said the two dump trucks that the city government has been sending since December 23 were easily filled as soon as they entered the barangay.
What worries Naliponguit is that the garbage may have clogged up the drainage system.
“I can not imagine what will happen if it rains heavily again,” she says.
The lack of running water compounds the clean up efforts of residents. Water flows only from 3 a.m. till 6 a.m. in most villages, and the water supplied by fire trucks would only be enough for drinking.
Naliponguit said volunteers from private companies like Del Monte have also come with their own cleaning materials but there has been no sustained and determined effort to completely cart away the garbage.
Legaspi, a resident of Isla Bugnaw, a community that sits on a river delta beside Barangay Consolacion, said they have been hoping more trucks would come to collect all the garbage.
Major Eugenio Osias IV, spokesperson of the Philippine Army’s 4th Infantry Division, said personnel from the Army’s 52nd Engineering Brigade have been involved in clearing debris since December 17 but have focused initially on retrieving fatalities.
“Now that retrieval operations are tapering off, we will be shifting our efforts on helping residents rebuild,” Osias said.