Water resources resilience and social perception of water scarcity in Tacloban, Philippines

Tacloban, Philippines, the city most harshly devastated by typhoon Haiyan in 2013, facessevere water supply constraints, particularly on the northern relocation sites which areexpected to accommodate part of its population in a near future. Consequently, relocatedfamilies are moving back to storm-surge prone areas in the city.Under a holistic view of resilience, the urgency of the development of water supplyinfrastructures on northern Tacloban was confirmed via a household survey, incorporatingthe social perception as a factor of resilience. In this context, a household survey wasconducted, and from the 282 respondents, 55.0% pointed water supply as a top priority tobe developed so as to increase their household resilience. Moreover, from mapping theseresults it became evident that almost the totality of households in the relocation areas inTacloban North stressed water supply as a top priority issue to be solved.The main goal of this research was to quantify the impacts of climate change on thehydrological system on which the city relies for water supply purposes. QSWAT was usedto evaluate the rivers flows which represent potential sources of water for the supplysolutions currently being considered. Results showed that, regardless of the chosensupply solution, for certain time periods (most severely for the trimester of March to May)the percentage of days in which the river flows were insufficient to meet the proposedwater catchment rates was significant. Moreover, it became evident that Pongso andCabayugan Rivers on northern Leyte represent a resilient water source to supply the newresettlement areas.This work is expected to contribute to the enforcement of the role of hydrological modelsin resilience studies - specifically in the developing world countries where data collectionis scarcer – and to support the resilience-enhancing practices on local water resourcesplanning and management.