MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Social Welfare and Development said it will build more than 8,000 disaster-resilient houses in Bohol for families who were affected by the 7.2 magnitude quake.
DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman said the project will be undertaken in partnership with the Habitat for Humanity under the Core Shelter Assistance Project (CSAP).
The project aims to build a total of 8,083 disaster- resilient homes which will be environment-friendly. The houses will be designed to stand up to winds up to 220 kilometers per hour (kph) and can also withstand an intensity 4 quake, Soliman said.
Each unit will cost P88,000, and will make use of locally available materials to revitalize the local economy. DSWD will shoulder P70,000 while the Habitat for Humanity will shoulder P18,000.
The provincial government, in coordination with the concerned municipalities, has already identified the beneficiaries.
The total cost of the housing project is P711,304,000. Of this amount, the DSWD will provide P565,810,000 and the rest will be shouldered by Habitat for Humanity.
Habitat, was chosen to build the core shelters due to its extensive experience in the management and implementation of socialized housing projects to address the shelter needs of the homeless and disadvantaged groups.
During the signing ceremony, the DSWD had turned over to the group a total of P371 million as initial tranche for its counterpart.
From the 17 hardest-hit towns of Bohol, Loon has the biggest number of totally damaged houses with 1,255 followed by Sagbayan with 1,035 then Maribojoc with 1,033.
Meanwhile, for families with partially damaged houses, the DSWD and the municipal governments will implement the Emergency Shelter Assistance (ESA) program as an assistance to help them build their houses.
Under the ESA project, each household-beneficiary will receive P10,000-worth of materials for house repair.
DSWD will provide P346.8 million for this project.
Based on DSWD assessment, a total of 34,688 houses were partially damaged in the province of Bohol. (with reports from Philippine News Agency)