by Gertrudes Samson

Who else can best convince people to practice solid waste management than people from their own community who practice it themselves and could prove that it is possible? TAO-Pilipinas is currently assisting the St. Hannibal Empowerment Center (SHEC) and its assisted organization in Pasay City called the St. Hannibal Christian Communities (SHaCC) on solid waste management (SWM) by training people from the community to become trainors themselves.

On April 11 to 12, 2008, the community trainors trained by TAO-Pilipinas held a two-day SWM Training Workshop at the SHEC office in E. Cornejo St., Pasay City to orient the second batch of 85 SHaCC members on the importance of solid waste management and how they could implement it in their community.

SHaCC is the second community to have undergone trainor’s training on solid waste management. The first was the Samahan ng Nagkakaisang Maralita ng Navotas (SANAGMANA), a community in a fish pond area in Tanza, Navotas. Like SHaCC, SANAGMANA community members were also trained in solid waste management. A month after the training, TAO-Pilipinas visited the workshop participants to see if they put into practice what they learned. Among those who practiced, potential speakers were selected for trainor’s training. They conducted the succeeding orientations in their community and then later served as resource speakers for the first workshop in SHaCC in Pasay in April 2007.

The successful result of the first workshop inspired SHaCC to seek the assistance of TAO-Pilipinas to help them build their own team of resource speakers, who then led the second SWM workshop in April 2008.
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An urban planner examines the viability of housing on stilts as a resettlement option for an urban poor community in Navotas

By Eloisa M. Pilapil

The Samahan ng Nagkakaisang Maralita ng Navotas(SANAGMANA) (Federation of the United Urban Poor Organizations in Navotas) is a federation of a community of informal settlers who live in the coastal and flood-prone municipality of Navotas located along Manila Bay. SANAGMANA is comprised of four subgroups: Sitio Mandaragat, Kapit-Bisig San Nazareno R-10, Sipac Almacen, and Little Samar.

A number of SANAGMANA households, especially those coming from Sitio Mandaragat, were relocated to Towerville, Bulacan in 2004 because their housing sites were affected by the ongoing CAMANAVA (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, and Valenzuela) Area Flood Control and Drainage System Improvement project, the construction of a polder dike and road widening projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). But some communities refused to relocate to Bulacan and instead looked for an alternative site within Navotas. In 2005, with the help of Community Organizing in the Philippines Enterprise (COPE), the Urban Poor Ministry (UPM), a Catholic church-based organization, technical professionals from TAO-Pilipinas, Planning Resources and Operations Systems (PROS), AMH Engineers, and SEASTEMS (an environmental impact assessment group), they sought the attention of the Housing and Urban Development Council (HUDCC) about their plight. Read more »

In October 2004, mud, fallen trees and water inundated the towns of Real, General Nakar and Infanta, Quezon, killing more than a thousand people. But miraculously, there was no casualty in Banglos, a settlement near the mouth of Agos River. We visited the residents to find out how they were able to survive and deal with the aftermath of the flood

By Ananeza Aban

General Nakar, Quezon- Adaptation to a life entwined with a river ecosystem plus the will to endure a disaster saved the people of Banglos from drowning in the flood triggered by typhoons that ravaged the towns of Infanta, General Nakar, and Real, Quezon in October 2004.

Banglos, a small fishing village in the municipality of General Nakar, is a low-lying area that sits between the Agos and Kuyapit Rivers. Agos River, the headwaters of which are in Rizal province, traverses the mountain ranges of Sierra Madre before it drains to Polilo Strait in Quezon. Kuyapit is a small tributary of Agos.

With this type of living environment, flooding has become a part of life in Banglos. During heavy rain, the residents observe keenly the movement of Agos River .When its water level increases alarmingly, the banca (fishing boat), their most reliable resource, is in place in case of flood.

But that unforgettable October was the worst. Typhoons Unding, Violeta, Winnie, and Yoyong hit the area successively and brought incessant rain, causing the river to overflow. What was most unnatural was the presence of huge logs that came along with the flood, damaging their already inundated settlement.
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