ARCADIS team asked by UN-Habitat to assess water supply damage in Iloilo, Philippines

A team of four experts of the Dutch consultancy firm ARCADIS will travel to the Ilo Ilo province and possible other locations in the Philippines this week to assist in damage assessments and reconstruction efforts.

At the request of UN-Habitat the team will carry out a three to four week mission to support in reconstruction of the water services.

The mission is performed under the Shelter program, a cooperation between ARCADIS and UN-Habitat launched in 2011 to improve the quality of life in rapidly growing cities around the world.

Shortage of potable water
UN-Habitat has asked ARCADIS for expertise in two areas. Given the shortage of potable water, ARCADIS is asked for immediate support in reconstruction of water services.

In addition, ARCADIS will assist in the assessment of damages and preparation of project plans for reconstruction. The mission will locally be coordinated by the office in Manila of ARCADIS subsidiary Langdon & Seah.

Ilo Ilo province and the other locations visited by the team were hit by the typhoon Haiyan but are not in the main destroyed areas. Other, more damaged areas already get a lot of support from international aid organizations.

Damage-ridden areas
Traveling into damage-ridden areas is not without risk and ample attention is paid to health and safety aspects during this mission. The team will work within the UN framework and with UN teams, and comply with (the strict) UN safety requirements. All ARCADIS health and safety requirements will be met as well, which is always the case for missions performed under the Shelter program.

International experienced staff
Bert Smolders, Program Manager for Shelter on the ARCADIS side said: "I am pleased we are able to rapidly deploy a strong team for this mission. In this situation we only deploy staff with international experience in difficult situations, an important prerequisite for safety. All team members are already fully vaccinated. All we need to make sure of now is that they can also communicate while in the region as we are not clear yet on cell phone reception.”

This news item was originally published on the website of ARCADIS.

More information
ARCADIS
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
+31 20 201 1011
www.arcadis.com
and
http://arcadis.com/shelter