(File photo)
MANILA – The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) has so far provided 1.74 million liters of drinking water to communities severely affected by Typhoon Odette last month.
"In terms of water, Mr. President, OCD provided 1.74 (million) liters or 2.1 million water bottles," OCD Assistant Secretary Hernando Caraig Jr. told President Rodrigo Duterte during the pre-recorded Talk to the People on Monday night.
Caraig made the remark in response to the President's question on whether there is a stable supply of drinking water in typhoon-battered areas.
He also said that the Lucio Tan Group and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce also donated some 1.9 million liters of water.
"And we still have a reserve of 2.175 (million) liters to be distributed to the affected regional areas for a total of 5.2 (million) liters," he added.
Caraig also added that the water donations from the Lucio Tan Group will continue until the end of this month.
"As I’ve earlier said, the remaining 2.1 million liters or equivalent to 4,350,000 bottles are to be distributed to the different areas, regional areas: Mimaropa, Regions 7, 8 and Caraga. These are the regions needing these bottled waters," he said.
Caraig also added that the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council's logistics cluster, which is also headed by the OCD, has so far delivered around 6.49 million kilograms of various relief items.
He also reported that "Odette" has so far affected 2.3 million families with 8.1 million affected persons.
The casualty count from the typhoon includes 406 deaths, 65 missing, and 1,265 injured.
"Damage to houses, we have 1.3 million damaged houses with an estimated cost of PHP64 million. While for the damage of infrastructure and agriculture we have PHP18 billion and PHP11.7 billion, respectively," Caraig said. (PNA)
