Misery for 1.5m after storms

Oct 26, 2009 More than 1.5 million people are struggling to live in flooded suburbs or crowded shelters one month after devastating rains began pounding the Philippines, and officials warn no quick fix is in sight. --PHOTO: REUTERS MANILA - MORE than 1.5 million people are struggling to live in flooded suburbs or crowded shelters one month after devastating rains began pounding the Philippines, and officials warn no quick fix is in sight. The impoverished Southeast Asian nation faces a huge long-term battle to recover from the two storms that claimed at least 929 lives in Manila and other parts of the main Luzon island, the government and relief organisations said. 'The storms and torrential rains... have left the people of the Philippines facing one of the greatest challenges in memory,' the UN's World Food Programme director, Josette Sheeran, said during a weekend visit to Manila. After tropical storm Ketsana dumped the heaviest rains in more than four decades on Manila on September 26, entire districts remain waist-deep in water and piles of flood debris still litter other parts of the capital. In mountain areas of northern Luzon that were pummelled by 10 days of torrential rain from tropical storm Parma which arrived a week after Ketsana, villages remain ghost towns after being hit by landslides. The World Health Organisation says 1.43 million people, mostly in and around Manila, continue to endure a dangerous existence living in flooded districts. Those areas may remain flooded for months because chaotic urban planning has led to natural drainage systems along lakes being blocked. -- AFP