Top UN Official Visits Typhoon-Ravaged Leyte Province

Tacloban City (PNA) – The top United Nations (UN) disaster resilience official will be in Leyte province on Monday to personally check post-Yolanda recovery activities.

Margareta Wahlström, head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) arrived in this city late Sunday afternoon for his one-day visit to the northern part of the city, Palo, Tanauan and Javier towns.

Mayors will usher the UNISDR chief to various reconstruction projects such as housing, school building, government facilities, among others.

Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Corazon Soliman will accompany the visiting UN official to represent the Philippines government.

Likewise, members of the regional disaster risk reduction and management council are expected to join the site visits.

“The purpose of my visit is to understand what you have been doing, what are the challenges and to learn from you as you share many ideas and learning,” Wahlström said in a press briefing at the city’s airport.

The official lauded the country for its focus on disaster risk reduction and management as manifested in Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction where the country has the most number of delegates.

“The country always has disasters, but there are leadership and people that focused on minimizing the impact of disasters,” Wahlström added.

The official admitted that it takes longer to reconstruct disaster-stricken areas.

“It takes time because everything changes and people have different ideas on what to do. It’s a complicated process,” she told reporters.

Wahlström has been the first Special Representative of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for Disaster Risk Reduction since November 2008.

The official has extensive experience in both disaster relief operations and disaster risk management, with the UN system and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The official made her first visit to Yolanda-hit communities in March 2014. (PNA) CTB/SQM