DAVAO CITY—Enhanced access to health care and potable water would ease the difficult situation of the returning displaced residents of Marawi City, as more than half of the entire population faced the stark reality of homes flattened or razed by the five-month battle to dislodge terrorists.
This was the appeal raised by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as half of the 200,0000 residents of the central Mindanao lakeside city trekked back to where their former houses stood, after the government in late-October officially declared the city liberated from the clutches of Islamic State-linked fighters.
The ICRC said last week 65 barangays “sustained minimum to medium damage” from the armed conflict.
“This means more than half of Marawi City’s total population will be allowed by the government to come home in the coming days or weeks,” said Roberto Petronio, head of the ICRC Mindanao subdelegation, after his recent trip to Marawi City.
The ICRC said it supported the return of displaced residents “by enhancing their access to health care and potable water” and putting up barangay health stations in Basak Malutlut, Poblacion Marawi, East Basak and Bangon. The barangays received essential medicines and supplies from the ICRC for the health needs of returning residents. These poblacion barangays were also among the most battered during the war.
The ICRC said the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) installed 11 water-distribution points to augment the supply of potable water to nine barangays in the west part; and donated two generators to the Marawi City Water District, enabling it to supply around 62,000 people with 5 million liters of water per day.
“In the coming weeks, we plan to focus our assistance to thousands of people who will remain displaced in the southern and western parts of Lake Lanao, as these are areas that do not receive as much help due to access issues,” Petronio said.
Meanwhile, the ICRC said, “As we support the needs of returning residents, we remain deeply concerned about the thousands of people who will be unable to return in the coming months. They will need constant support during this period.”
Also, it disclosed that, “As part of its work to reunite families separated by conflicts, the ICRC continues to follow up on cases of people who went missing in Marawi; and supports the PRC on its tracing services on the ground and through the web site https://familylinks.icrc.org/Philippines.
It said its work in Marawi City and around Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte is part of being “a neutral, impartial and independent humanitarian organization whose exclusively humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity of victims of armed conflict and other situations of violence, and to provide them with assistance.”
“The ICRC also endeavors to prevent suffering by promoting and strengthening humanitarian law and universal humanitarian principles,” it added.