{"id":352,"date":"2022-01-21T08:45:16","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T08:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/esg-impact.discoverphilippines.com\/?p=352"},"modified":"2022-01-24T22:29:19","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T22:29:19","slug":"a-more-typhoon-resilient-siargao-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esg-impact.discoverphilippines.com\/a-more-typhoon-resilient-siargao-island\/","title":{"rendered":"A more typhoon resilient Siargao island"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On December 16, 2021, tropical typhoon Odette (international name “Rai”) hit Siargao Island directly, and caused immense damages to the island. The airport terminal was destroyed, electricity and telecommunication were down for weeks, many homes were leveled to the ground, and people suffered from water and food shortages for several weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While noting the devastation that this typhoon has caused, one should be reminded of a saying: “no disaster should be wasted”, meaning that the disaster has shown us the main vulnerabilities of Siargao Island to vicious typhoons. Odette is unlikely to be the last of them. If we do something now, when these vulnerabilities are still fresh in our mind, maybe, just maybe, next time, Siargao island can be more capable of escaping major damages to people and properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siargao island<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siargao island is a place that has been growing in prosperity in recent years because of tourism. Its popularity grew from its being discovered as an ideal surfing location. After that, more tourist attractions were found on the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siargao island’s population is around 110,000. As its tourism industry grows, which it will, as it slowly recovers from Odette, population can be expected to grow fast, since it will be attracting residents from nearby islands because of its income generating opportunities brought by tourism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means several things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– higher population will be affected in future disasters;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– higher income from tourism;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– higher demand for public utilities such as power, water, and waste management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need to plan and put in place facilities and systems now to mitigate these issues, so that the success of Siargao will not become its downfall in the future. The more we do now, the less we will lose in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typhoon vulnerabilities of Siargao island<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electricity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siargao island has been without electricity since Typhoon Odette hit it on December 16, 2021. As of January 13, the website and social media of the electricity distributor in Siargao island, called SIARELCO, have no update. According to a press report<\/a> published on December 26, 2021,  the Placer-Madrid 69 kilovolt (KV) line affecting Siargao island, parts of Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur, had yet to be restored. (https:\/\/www.bworldonline.com\/ngcp-restores-85-of-vis-min-transmission-lines-after-typhoon\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(source: Philstar, as published in bworldonline.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Even when the transmission lines from Mindanao were repaired on December 31, 2021 (reported here<\/a>), the distribution of electricity to Siargao island was not restored, due to the damages sustained by distribution lines located on Siargao island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siargao has an off peak electricity demand of 6.6MW and peak demand of 7.9MW in 2018. This was projected to increase steadily, to 10.5MW to 13MW in 2021, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siargao\u2019s electricity is mostly supplied by the Mindanao grid of Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (the Agus-Pulangi hydro power complex and the Mt. Apo geothermal power plants) (6MW), Hydro Electric Development Corporation (HEDCOR) of Aboitz Group (Bukidnon Hydro power plant) (2MW), and  2 MW power from coal-fired plant in Kauswagan, Lanao Del Norte, Mindanao from GN Power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Agus-Pulangi hydro power plant  (source: psalm.gov.ph)
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Telecommunication<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siargao has telecommunication services provided by the two dominant telephone companies in the Philippines, namely PLDT and Globe. In 2019, Globe added three new cell towers to Siargao (see news here<\/a>). Globe at that time, mentioned the difficulties to set up new cell towers due to bureaucratic red tapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The onslaught of Odette knocked out telecommunication, either due to damages to cell towers, or lack of power. One week after Odette, telecommunication was partially restored in Siargao island (read this<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emergency shelter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In preparation for Odette, the authorities set up a newly completed sports complex to serve as evacuation center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Source: Philstar)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

According to a Twitter message (Gretchen Ho), \u201cThis is what the Siargao sports center\/evacuation area looks like. They were evacuated into the sports center but the sports center collapsed during the storm.\u201d \u2014 Jeaneth Tuason (11:57am, December 20, 2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Water and food<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Metro Siargao Water District (MSWD) was formed on January 16, 1978 and provides potable water supply to the thirteen (13) poblacion barangays of the municipality of Dapa as its service coverage. Dapa is one of the nine municipalities on Siargao island. The present water supply is an underground creek with running water. https:\/\/mswddapa.gov.ph\/?p=28<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even before December 2021, Siargao island seems to have a shortage in the supply of drinking water. This was mentioned in an Asian Development Bank (ADB) document, called \u201cCommunities lead the way in creating a more resilient Siargao Island\u201d  (https:\/\/www.livablecities.info\/resilient-siargao-island<\/a>).   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the aftermath of typhoon Odette, residents of Siargao were faced with a lack of drinkable water and food supply. Deaths caused by drinking dirty water were reported in the press. According to one report, this was due to the lack of electricity to operate water filtration systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Siargao Island death toll climbs as diarrhea cases swell<\/a><\/blockquote>