Tondo fire victims decry poor conditions at evacuation site

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InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

MANILA, Philippines – As if losing their homes was not misery enough, thousands of fire victims from Isla Puting Bato in Tondo district now must deal with hunger and disease, given the poor conditions in their evacuation center.

After spending three days in the Delpan Sports Complex, the evacuees who lost their homes in the four-hour blaze that struck the shantytown along Manila Bay last Saturday are now plagued by diseases---fever, seasonal summer diseases like chickenpox, respiratory ailments, boils and gastrointestinal diseases. Many affected are children,  even as the evacuees reported that thousands of them must share only two toilets.

They were hoping portalets and bigger areas could be provided, but Manila City Hall has not been heard from.

Joana, one of the mothers enduring the heat and congestion at the sports complex, said her child was stricken with chickenpox.

Meanwhile, 64-year-old grandmother Josefa is hoping authorities will help her go home to Aklan province.

She recently suffered a stroke. And last night, she woke up in pain, to realize that she had been bitten by a rat and was bleeding.

According to the sports complex caretaker Caloy Chuidian, the evacuees also compound their misery with their lack of discipline and sense of hygiene. The two toilets get clogged easily because, besides human waste, the evacuees are throwing garbage there as well, he said. From a report by Edison Reyes

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