Typhoon Yolanda death count now 5,209 while 5.2M workers deprived of livelihood

Newsdig coverage by Cbanga360.net

The Philippine national disaster council on Friday said the number of fatalities for super typhoon “Yolanda” spiked to 5,209, with 23,404 injured and 1,582 still missing.

Executive director Eduardo del Rosario attributed the sudden spike in the number of fatalities to the number of dead recovered five days ago.

In Region 8 alone, Del Rosario said the death toll has now hit the 4,919 mark.

He said the number of injured for Region 8 is placed at 22,658 and missing at 1,582.

Meanwhile, Lawrence Jeff Johnson, director, ILO Country Office for the Philippines at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs made the disclosure that some 5.2 million workers lost their livelihood either permanently or temporarily brought about by the typhoon, during a press conference held at the Yuchengco Tower in Makati city on Friday.

“As of today, over 5.2 million workers were affected and have lost their livelihoods either temporarily or permanently,” Johnson said in a statement.

Johnson also said that “almost half of these affected workers are in vulnerable employment at 2.3 million,” adding that even “before the typhoon these workers in vulnerable employment are already living in poverty – accepting or creating whatever work is available in order to survive.”

“The real challenge we face within the livelihood cluster is the limited funding, which now stands at 6 per cent,” he said.

Johnson said that “livelihood and agriculture are among the areas with limited funding.”

ILO said that the Nov. 8 super typhoon affected a total of 13.2 million people in Eastern Visayas, particularly Samar and Leyte.

Damage to agricultural crops was also extensive as large coconut trees were blown down.

Johnson also said that ILO has deployed six teams to affected areas such as Tacloban city, Roxas city in Panay, Busuanga in Palawan, Northern Cebu, Negros Occidental and Bohol.

According to Johnson, “emergency employment must be at the forefront of disaster response,” saying that “the reconstruction work that lies ahead is enormous.”

Johnson who personally went to Tacloban said the scope of damage he saw was massive “and the government cannot do it alone.”

He said the ILO has called out its partners and donors in the international community to support the reconstruction of affected areas in the Visayas to help bring the victims of the disasters to have decent and productive work as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s Fund, said that early this week it had distributed 2,000 hygiene kits and 2,000 water kits for 10,000 internally displaced persons in Guiuan, Eastern Samar, one of the hardest hit areas by the typhoon.

UNICEF also installed three water bladders in Tacloban city that can provide 25,000 liters a day of drinking water for 8,000 people.(with PNA report by Ben Cal)

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