LONDON (AlertNet) - Just weeks after two powerful typhoons wreaked havoc in the Philippines, the country is bracing for another typhoon that could heap more rain on already flooded northern regions and worsen the risk from water-borne diseases, aid workers said on Thursday.
Typhoon Mirinae, a category 2 typhoon with maximum centre winds of 150 kph (93 mph) and gusts of up to 185 kph, is expected to hit the Luzon area in the northern Philippines in the next two days.
Residents, government workers and aid agencies are still struggling to cope with the aftermath of Typhoon Ketsana that battered the Philippines on Sept. 26 and Typhoon Parma that hit one week later.
Ketsana and Parma dumped record-high rain on the Philippines that submerged 80 percent of the capital and wide stretches of farmland in the northern provinces, killing more than 900 people and displacing hundreds of thousands. The country experienced its worst flooding in 40 years.
Hundreds of thousands of people are still living in flooded areas, either in their homes or crammed into makeshift evacuation centres, surrounded by stagnant water where the risk of disease is growing. The problems will only get worse if Mirinae brings more water, relief workers said.
"Water-borne diseases are a big problem in flooded areas," Sanny Jegillos, regional coordinator for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) told AlertNet by telephone from Manila. "The problem will continue because people are still living in submerged areas and things will only get better if the water recedes."
People with open wounds or those who swallow dirty water are at risk of contracting disease, Jegillos added.
According to local health officials, there are 2,158 confirmed cases of leptospirosos, a bacterial infection caused by contact with water contaminated by rat and other animal urine, and 167 deaths linked to the disease, the UN news agency IRIN reported this week. The World Health Organisation has sent a team to try and control the outbreak. There is also a risk of dengue fever, carried by mosquitos.
Gjeff Lamigo, acting communications manager at World Vision Asia Pacific, said widespread garbage remained a problem and there was a bad stench around the crammed evacuation centres.
DANGERS OF APATHY
Trucks loaded with food, water and relief goods arrived in the north on Thursday and emergency teams took up positions to prepare for the next typhoon. Evacuation efforts are underway for those living in flood-prone areas.
But there is a risk of complacency amongst parts of the population, relief workers said. Typhoon Lupit was set to strike the Philippines last week in the same northern region and the government evacuated people from threatened areas but Lupit did not hit land.
"The government is trying to do pre-emptive evacuation in many places but this is a big challenge. Because Lupit didn't hit, today the government has the problem of credibility so my worry is that because of the previous typhoon, people may take an apathetic attitude and remain in dangerous areas," Jegillos said.
On the positive side, the recent spate of typhoons and the near-miss of typhoon Lupit means the government is better prepared than it was when Ketsana hit, some aid workers said.
"This typhoon seems to be towards Luzon again ... the benefit we have of course is that we put in place a whole system of preparedness for the previous one (Lupit)," said Terje Skavdal, head of the regional office of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for the Asia-Pacific. "From the reports we are seeing, it seems to be carrying a lot of water but we don't know how it will behave when it moves closer to land."
Skavdal said some flooded areas will remain underwater for two to three months.
"The water is receding so slowly because the inundation has been so heavy, so the ground is totally clogged with water," he said by telephone from Bangkok. OCHA has six people on the ground in the Philippines and another team ready to deploy if necessary.
Twenty typhoons on average hit the Southeast Asian country of more than 7,000 islands every year.
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