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| Arcadis team returns from Shelter mission to Philippines with UN-Habitat A team of six ARCADIANs recently returned from the second Shelter Rapid Response follow-up mission to typhoon hit parts of the Philippines. The mission team, led by Program Manager Bert Smolders, assisted UN-Habitat in its damage assessment and reconstruction efforts following Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013. The typhoon devastated parts of the Philippines, killing thousands of people and leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless with little or no access to food, clean water and medication. The Arcadis team assisted UN-Habitat in preparing plans for coastal zone protection, the provision of water supply and the urban planning of the area. Speaking after the mission, Bert Smolders commented: "The widespread devastation caused by typhoon Hayian was still shockingly visible everywhere we went (pictured). Conditions for the people of Tacloban and Guiuan are severe but UN-Habitat and other international organizations are working hard to provide relief and recovery, and we are proud to be part of that work. The team had an excellent experience and made a real difference the local communities there." Bernhard Barth, Human Settlements Officer, Asia Pacific at UN-HABITAT gave the following feedback to the Arcadis team: "UN-Habitat is grateful to all the team members for the wonderful support they have provided to Tacloban and Guiuan through Shelter. The Arcadis team's contribution has been extremely useful to our work and is highly appreciated by the local government. "We look forward to your continued support to the typhoon response, in particular the coastal protection and master planning work. On a personal level, I have also very much appreciated the spirit of the team and look forward to continuing discussions around the possibilities of working together with Shelter on our other Philippines and Pacific country programs in the future." This trip followed a successful first mission carried out in the region last November. The missions were carried out at the request of UN-Habitat and performed under the Shelter program, the collaboration between Arcadis and UN-Habitat. write your comments about the article :: © 2014 Construction News :: home page |