The UN yesterday nearly doubled its appeal for funds to help the Philippines cope with the effects of back-to-back storms that left more than 1,100 people dead and 1.7 million homeless.
The office of the UN’s resident coordinator in Manila said the agency had revised upward its appeal to US$143.7 million — almost twice the US$74 million it had initially requested last month.
Of the original appeal, only US$26 million, or just 18.6 percent, has been raised, limiting the ability of aid agencies to effectively help those still in dire need of assistance, the UN said.
“The emergency response is being hampered by low levels of funding, particularly in areas such as agriculture, protection, shelter and education of children,” UN resident coordinator Jacqueline Badcock said in a statement.
“We are presenting this revised appeal today, in the hope that the international community will do all they can to further assist the millions of Filipinos still affected today by the impact of multiple typhoons that have ravaged the country,” she said.
She said if the funding shortfall continued, approximately 1.7 million people in areas still flooded face serious health and protection risks and about 1.2 million school children may not be able to resume their education.
Tropical Storm Ketsana dumped a month’s worth of rain on Metro Manila and outlying provinces on Sept. 26, inundating more than 80 percent of the metropolis and washing away entire lakeshore and riverside communities.
A week later, Typhoon Parma ravaged areas further north on the Philippines’ main island of Luzon island, triggering floods and landslides and destroying large agriculture lands.
The UN said that the planting season this month may also be missed, adding to the longer-term implications for food security, if no additional funds are raised.
The storms claimed more than 1,100 lives, including deaths from an outbreak of a flood-borne disease.
Of the more than 9 million people affected, more than 85,000 still remain in crowded evacuation centers, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said, while many others have been taken in by relatives or are staying with friends.
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