The desire to construct permanent housing, especially housing of a superior structural quality than that of houses destroyed in the calamity, dominates post-disaster recovery and reconstruction actions while other aspects of infrastructure are neglected. Relocation projects in particular, often established on barren parcels lacking any formal civil infrastructure, face unique construction challenges. As a descriptive case study, this paper serves to chronicle the development of one of the most trying infrastructure challenges for relocation projects, improving conventional standards of wastewater treatment. Our context is Typhoon Yolanda recovery in Tacloban City, Philippines, where 40 percent of the population slated for relocation. We find innovative coordination channels and outside expertise were critical to the development of new wastewater interventions, yet conclude that deeper levels of community engagement are needed if the technologies are to be successful.
Palagi, S., Jopson, T., and Javernick-Will, A. (2016). “Efforts to Design Wastewater Treatment Systems for Tacloban North Relocation Sites.” International Symposium on New Technologies for Urban Safety of Mega Cities in Asia. Tacloban, Philippines.