It's all about nails

By Wan S. Sophonpanich, Shelter Adviser, Asia, Save the Children

It’s three weeks since typhoon Bopha, locally known as Pablo, made landfall on the eastern coast of Mindanao, Philippines; and the sound of hammering could be heard echoing throughout the community we went to for shelter assessment.

Haguimitan is a barangay of Monkayo municipality in Compostela Valley province where the majority ofhouses have been damaged, to varying degrees, by the typhoon. Luckily a number of houses are still standing and many families are able to live with friends and relatives while they repair and rebuild their houses.  In most cases, damage to houses and public buildings were caused by strong wind. The level of damage varies from loss of roofing sheets, to loss of roof frame, to a complete collapse of the houses.  Weak connections and lack of bracing have been the cause of many of these structural failures.

Three weeks on and it’s clear that salvageable materials have been sorted and organized into ready-to-use piles – nails were pulled out of timber and sorted by size, useable timbers were stacked together, fallencoconut lumbers are slowly being cut up into useable boards with chainsaws; and damaged-beyond-salvage nipa thatching are put aside.

One family I talked to have bought new nipa thatching from Monkayo to repair their house, at PhP600 (US$14) for 100 pieces (a small house needing around 300). This is the most affordable roofing for the community.  They said that it would last around 3 years. When asked whether this is better than CGI sheeting, they laughed and said that CGI will be better, but nipa is also ok. Which reminds me that we (the shelter cluster) haven’t really had a conversation on how dangerous CGI sheets can be during typhoons, when they fly off from badly fixed roof at 160km/hr.

It is going to be important to ensure that repairs and construction work following the typhoon is made stronger and safer for the children and their families, and it is these small fixings such as nails and straps that will play that vital role, along with guidance on how basic structures can be improved and strengthen.  I hope that we can move fast enough, to insert ideas on disaster resilient construction into the communities while all the housing repairs are still on-going.