By EUGENE ADIONG
BACOLOD City — Residents of Cadiz City who have been rendered homeless by super typhoon “Yolanda” will be provided with houses by the National Housing Authority (NHA).
A total of 8,472 houses will be put up in Cadiz as part of NHA’s housing program for the storm survivors.
Mayor Patrick Escalante said the houses will be “typhoon-resistant.”
He said each will have an area of 22 square meters and will be located in a 40-square meter lot.
Escalante said the beneficiaries can be moved to the city’s relocation sites in barangays Daga, Bangkirohan and Cadiz Viejo.
The NHA, however, “intends to purchase additional land to accommodate [more relocatees], especially those from danger zones,” he said.
Aside from the houses, Escalante said the NHA will also “construct roads and install electrical connections.”
The houses to be put up in Cadiz were part of the 29,650 houses the NHA plans to build all over Negros Occidental.
Other beneficiary local governments were Sagay City (7,850 houses), Manapla town (2,964), Escalante City (2,018), Victorias City (2,321), EB Magalona (1,168), Silay City (1,992), Calatrava (1,138) and Toboso (1,457).
The NHA has allocated a total of P8.5 billion for the construction of these houses.
Architect Susan Nonato of the NHA Project Implementation Team for Negros and Cebu said they aim to complete this project under the Rehabilitation and Recovery Program before 2016.
Nonato said the beneficiaries were identified based on data provided by the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the housing department of each local government.
All the beneficiary local governments have to do is provide the land on which the houses will be built, she said.
Escalante said Cadiz City’s housing department has implemented a “tagging scheme” wherein the beneficiaries are given stickers.
“This will ensure that only the beneficiaries can avail themselves of the housing project,” he said./PN
