In Bula, Camarines Sur, MSF reaches the hardest-hit communities, where clean drinking water is one of the most urgent needs.
The latest tropical storm to hit the country was particularly deadly and caused extensive damage. Severe Tropical Storm Trami entered the Philippine area of responsibility on October 21, and made landfall on October 24. In those four days, Trami brought intense rains to the entire Luzon and Visayas regions, resulting in widespread flooding and landslides. More than 7 million people have been affected in 17 regions of the country, with over 100 dead.
The province of Camarines Sur is one of the hardest hit, with 36 out of 37 municipalities flooded. There has been extensive damage to property and livelihood, with families losing homes and crops to the floods. On October 26, a Médecins sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders (MSF) team was among the first organisations to arrive in the area and start responding to the most urgent needs of the flood-affected population.
Dr. Marve Duka Fernandez, Medical Team Leader of the MSF emergency response, shares what she has seen in Camarines Sur.
Some of the areas we have visited are just now seeing the flood waters subside. These communities need safe drinking water, and basic medications, because they have been cut off from medical services. Those with chronic diseases have gaps in their maintenance medications. Exposure to flood waters for several days has led to open wounds, fungal infections, and the risks of vector borne diseases such as leptospirosis.
During our debriefing sessions in the community, one of the concerns they most often mentioned was their livelihood. When we offer psychosocial debriefing and they try to look forward to what comes after the flood and the cleanup, they are really thinking about how difficult it will be to build again, because their sources of livelihood—rice fields, farm animals, tools—have been washed away, destroyed.
Since we have been here, we have done assessments of the worst-hit areas, by coordinating with authorities and then doing actual visits to the communities. We have focused on the municipality of Bula in Camarines Sur, which is ground zero for the flash floods. This municipality is contiguous with the river, and there are tens of thousands of people living in Bula municipality.
We have gone to two barangays (local communities), Fabrica and Ombao Polpog, and have conducted mobile clinics in each, with mental health and psychosocial support sessions for the community, especially the frontliners. We have also distributed hygiene kits, as well as drinking water in jerrycans that can be refilled. We have also done a follow-up in an outlying section of San Miguel and ran mobile clinics in the barangays of Casugad and Salvacion. It's a comprehensive service of clinics, mental health support, hygiene kits, and water distribution to these identified barangays.
When we first arrived, many barangays were still flooded, or the roads to access them were still submerged, and inaccessible for light vehicles. Our team coordinated with local authorities to reach these areas by boat or by truck, so that we could assess the needs, and determine how to transport supplies and our team.
Another challenge is having a full complement of necessary drugs and materials, along with a full team that we can bring to the community. Medicines are an issue, and it's due to a combination of factors. The majority of stores and warehouses here were flooded, and their stocks come from Manila. But there has been very little supply coming through, and there are delays in the deliveries of drugs. The thoroughfares were also flooded, or there have been checkpoints, as well as some security issues. At the same time, the demand in Camarines Sur is quite high, with local people buying drugs because they lost their supply in the floods, so the shelves of these stores were all emptied. That really affects the quality of the services that we provide, because these drugs are critical for the services that we want to bring to the people. What we did is transport our own supply of drugs from Manila.
What's been really positive in Camarines Sur is the presence of volunteers who have come to us from their own associations and hospitals. These are doctors, nurses, volunteers from the local government unit (LGU) and private individuals, who have provided information, resources, and time. We are working with volunteer doctors and nurses from Bicol Medical Center. We are working with nurses from the Department of Health (DOH) and the Rural Health Unit (RHU) of Bula. And whenever we go to the barangays, we are welcomed by barangay health workers (BHWs), who themselves have been flooded, yet they are there for their barangays. We are able to conduct mobile clinics with them, they help with the triaging and consultations, and the dispensing of drugs.
Over the course of two weeks, MSF has visited and assessed several municipalities in Camarines Sur. In Barangay Sua, Camaligan, MSF distributed 90 jerrycans with safe drinking water to 190 families. Then MSF focused its effort on the municipality of Bula, where our team visited several barangays (or municipalities) to determine the most urgent needs. In the barangays of Fabrica, Ombao Polpog, San Miguel and Casugad, MSF has distributed 700 hygiene kits and 1,110 jerrycans with safe drinking water.
Working with local volunteers, MSF has also conducted 1,449 medical consultations and provided psychosocial support to 238 affected people through individual and group sessions in the barangays of Fabrica, Ombao Polpog, San Miguel, Casugad and Salvacion. MSF has also scheduled mobile clinics and distribution of jerrycans and hygiene kits to the Barangay Salvacion.
MSF’s intervention ended on 8th November as the most acute phase of the emergency prompting our response has passed.
