Pace of Yolanda rehab up to government – UN exec

MANILA, Philippines – The national and local governments can work on speeding up the pace of rebuilding disaster-hit areas despite challenges they had to face after Super Typhoon Yolanda in 2013, a UN official said yesterday.

“You know, I think I said this in September and I’ll say it again… reconstruction is never fast enough for the people that have been affected and do not have a place to live in,” Margareta Wahlstrom, Special Representative of the United Nations secretary general for disaster risk reduction, said in a press briefing in Malacañang.

Wahlstrom was in Leyte in September to inspect and personally assess the outcome of rehabilitation efforts in Yolanda-hit areas.

She saw significant developments in the way the Philippines had been dealing with climate change and disasters, and that challenges in rebuilding were not unique to the country.

Wahlstrom said the devastation of Yolanda was huge, and just like in Japan where a tsunami hit in 2011, the time it “takes to re-plan and to rebuild is painful for the victims.”

“That has to be respected,” she said.

“But also the purpose is of course that they have to be safer in the future. They have to be offered more safe living conditions. And regrettably, just like we can see in Japan, there are many people still who have not been given permanent opportunities.