The large number of people still displaced in Mindanao is pushing water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) conditions to the brink, health experts warn.
More than 250,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) have yet to return home after prolonged fighting between government forces and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), who have been battling for an ancestral homeland for decades.
Most of the IDPs are in one of more than 150 evacuation centres, with the rest staying with family or friends, the Department of Social Welfare and Development reports - the vast majority in central Maguindanao Province.
"The situation is critical," Rose Ebus, executive director of Mindanao Tulong Bakwet, a local NGO, working closely with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), told IRIN in Cotabato, emphasising the need to scale up facilities.
"Sphere standards are not possible here, not just because of physical constraints and resources, but also an acute lack of awareness among the IDPs themselves," Ebus said.
According to Paul Rosario, programme manager for emergency preparedness and response at Oxfam UK, newly formed and informal/makeshift evacuation sites still do not have sufficient water and sanitation facilities, while proper maintenance of existing facilities has deteriorated.
"There is a growing indication that the WASH situation in conflict-affected communities in Central Mindanao is once again heading for deterioration," Rosario said. "Hygiene promotion activities are already on a decline. Seemingly it is only a matter of time before IDPs are again exposed to great public health risks."
Health risks
But in many instances, those risks are already present. Common health complaints include diarrhoea, parasitism, acute respiratory infections and malnutrition. At least two children have died of acute watery diarrhoea at the Lumpong IDP evacuation centre in Datu Odin Sinsuat - underscoring the need for immediate action.
Access to potable water in most of the camps remains problematic, and many camps suffer from an acute shortage of latrines and water points, as well as sanitation.
According to a WASH assessment of both old and new evacuation centres, relocation sites and home-based settings in Maguindanao and North Cotabato in July, almost 42,000 people had to share 61 water points and 165 latrines - one water point for 680 people and one latrine for 252.
Of existing latrines, one out of four were out of use, resulting in IDPs being forced to defecate in the open, the assessment said, while most of the hygiene promotion activities begun earlier had been discontinued.
At the Notre Dame Dulawan evacuation centre in Datu Piang, some 300 families or 1,500 people share just two latrines and a handful of water points for water and bathing.
"The warning signs are there," Betrand Rossier, head of mission for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said.
Urgent planning needs
Leslie Morris-Iveson, a Cotabato-based WASH specialist for UNICEF, said population movements from different settings and IDP locations, as well as the issue of resettlement, were also now coming into play.
"At this point, we are trying to maintain a basic minimum in as many places as possible," she said, describing the situation as "fluid".
"The planning itself is challenged," she said. "We don't know where people are going to be. It's not like in a natural disaster where people in a defined location have to leave and it's a very straightforward planning process."
Added to that are the geographical and environmental constraints of the IDP sites themselves.
While higher elevated locations had very low ground-water tables, requiring drilling up to 30m to reach the aquifer, others were continually marshy or flooded.
"We're not dealing with similar conditions in all the places, requiring us to use a host of technical solutions," she said.
According to Oxfam, improving the situation will require a more holistic and long-term approach in providing humanitarian assistance, such that interventions will be sustained by local authorities even without the support of humanitarian actors.
Aid agencies also need to carefully fine-tune the assistance so as not to create a culture of dependence and pull the IDPs away from their places of origin, Rosario said.
"Any further WASH response at this point must continue to follow earlier designed interventions that are in line with the humanitarian protection framework and link with other critical interventions, such as livelihoods," he added.
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More than 250,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) have yet to return home after prolonged fighting between government forces and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), who have been battling for an ancestral homeland for decades.
Most of the IDPs are in one of more than 150 evacuation centres, with the rest staying with family or friends, the Department of Social Welfare and Development reports - the vast majority in central Maguindanao Province.
"The situation is critical," Rose Ebus, executive director of Mindanao Tulong Bakwet, a local NGO, working closely with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), told IRIN in Cotabato, emphasising the need to scale up facilities.
"Sphere standards are not possible here, not just because of physical constraints and resources, but also an acute lack of awareness among the IDPs themselves," Ebus said.
According to Paul Rosario, programme manager for emergency preparedness and response at Oxfam UK, newly formed and informal/makeshift evacuation sites still do not have sufficient water and sanitation facilities, while proper maintenance of existing facilities has deteriorated.
"There is a growing indication that the WASH situation in conflict-affected communities in Central Mindanao is once again heading for deterioration," Rosario said. "Hygiene promotion activities are already on a decline. Seemingly it is only a matter of time before IDPs are again exposed to great public health risks."
Photo: David Swanson/IRIN  |
| A set of latrines at the Notre Dame Dulawan evacuation centre in Data Pian |
But in many instances, those risks are already present. Common health complaints include diarrhoea, parasitism, acute respiratory infections and malnutrition. At least two children have died of acute watery diarrhoea at the Lumpong IDP evacuation centre in Datu Odin Sinsuat - underscoring the need for immediate action.
Access to potable water in most of the camps remains problematic, and many camps suffer from an acute shortage of latrines and water points, as well as sanitation.
According to a WASH assessment of both old and new evacuation centres, relocation sites and home-based settings in Maguindanao and North Cotabato in July, almost 42,000 people had to share 61 water points and 165 latrines - one water point for 680 people and one latrine for 252.
Of existing latrines, one out of four were out of use, resulting in IDPs being forced to defecate in the open, the assessment said, while most of the hygiene promotion activities begun earlier had been discontinued.
At the Notre Dame Dulawan evacuation centre in Datu Piang, some 300 families or 1,500 people share just two latrines and a handful of water points for water and bathing.
"The warning signs are there," Betrand Rossier, head of mission for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said.
|
Photo: David Swanson/IRIN |
| A woman pumps water at the Datu Piang Plaza evacuation centre in Datu Piang, Mindanao. Water and sanitation conditions are on the decline, say health experts |
Leslie Morris-Iveson, a Cotabato-based WASH specialist for UNICEF, said population movements from different settings and IDP locations, as well as the issue of resettlement, were also now coming into play.
"At this point, we are trying to maintain a basic minimum in as many places as possible," she said, describing the situation as "fluid".
"The planning itself is challenged," she said. "We don't know where people are going to be. It's not like in a natural disaster where people in a defined location have to leave and it's a very straightforward planning process."
Added to that are the geographical and environmental constraints of the IDP sites themselves.
While higher elevated locations had very low ground-water tables, requiring drilling up to 30m to reach the aquifer, others were continually marshy or flooded.
"We're not dealing with similar conditions in all the places, requiring us to use a host of technical solutions," she said.
According to Oxfam, improving the situation will require a more holistic and long-term approach in providing humanitarian assistance, such that interventions will be sustained by local authorities even without the support of humanitarian actors.
Aid agencies also need to carefully fine-tune the assistance so as not to create a culture of dependence and pull the IDPs away from their places of origin, Rosario said.
"Any further WASH response at this point must continue to follow earlier designed interventions that are in line with the humanitarian protection framework and link with other critical interventions, such as livelihoods," he added.
ds/ey/mw
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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