Post-Haiyan rebuilding could cost billions, says Philippine minister

The cost of rebuilding in the swathe of the Philippines devastated bytyphoon Haiyan could reach $5.8bn, a senior official has said.

Homes, businesses, public facilities and infrastructure were shattered by the fierce winds and powerful storm surge. At least 3,974 people are dead and 1,186 missing, with an estimated four million displaced.

The government has already cut its growth estimate for the year, but Arsenio Balisacan, the economic planning secretary, said the fundamentals remained intact in one of Asia's fastest growing economies.

"I would not be surprised if it can go as high as 250 billion [pesos, $5.8bn, £3.6bn]," Balisacan told Reuters, commenting on the likely cost of reconstruction.

The United Nations Development Programme has pledged $5m (£3.1m) to help clear away debris that is hampering relief efforts. But Helen Clark, the programme's administrator, said four times that would be needed to clear rubble in affected provinces in the first phase of work.

Relief efforts have stepped up dramatically in the past few days. "It looks completely different to when I came in last week," said Valerie Amos, the United Nations humanitarian chief. "I'm really delighted that so much progress has been made, so much more aid is going out, and the people are getting the vital supplies that they need."

The government said nearly 25,000 personnel, 104 ships and boats and 163 aircraft from various countries had been deployed. Almost 90 medical teams, roughly half foreign and half local, are at work.

Lieutenant General Roy Deveraturda, military commander of the Visayas – the island grouping hit by the storm – said the region would be divided into blocks to streamline relief efforts.

"We're planning to ask the British Royal Navy to concentrate on the western Visayas region to assess and deliver food, water and supplies to smaller islands … We already have the Americans in Samar and Leyte and Israeli doctors and relief teams in the northern tip of Cebu," he said.

Eduardo del Rosario, director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said: "Basically, we've provided everyone with relief. What we are doing right now is sustainment."

But in remote villages in Eastern Samar province, one of the areas worst hit by the storm, handwritten banners pleaded for attention and residents said they were in desperate need of aid. "Help us. We need food," said one message painted on blue plastic sheeting.

In Hernani, where dozens of wooden houses were swept away and several villagers died, one family said there had been a single delivery of food and water, while others said there had been none.

"We don't have any choice over our future," said Nestor Candido, 39, as his family sheltered under a plastic sheet. "All we do here is plant vegetables and harvest coconuts and now this tragedy … It will take time to get another harvest."

Fourteen prisoners who escaped Tacloban jail when the typhoon flooded the prison and smashed the central gate are back behind bars, Reuters reported. Another 103 are missing.

The prisoners had been freed from their cells so they could seek higher ground. Some returned of their own volition while others were recaptured by officers. The jail's warden said many inmates had fled to help their families survive the storm.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/19/typhoon-haiyan-rebuilding-cost-philippines