Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, has
launched a Tsunami Human Settlements Recovery Facility at a
recently concluded UN conference of Small Island Developing
States. UN Habitat’s Programme Managers (HPMs) in Sri Lanka,
India, Indonesia and the Philippines are ready to assist in
emergency or assessment operations. The HPMs are focusing on two
main objectives – to assist the affected countries to articulate
human settlement dimensions (shelter, sanitation and water
supply plus integrated settlement planning that leads to
community empowerment) in the assessment and resulting
interventions, and to lay the foundation for UN-HABITAT's
involvement in any future reconstruction projects. Their initial
assessment will provide further guidance for the timing of
deployment and the portfolio of required expertise in the field.
In Sri Lanka, UN-HABITAT has already drawn up a list of 10
cities that will benefit from immediate relief estimated to cost
US$1 million. The cities of Moratuwa, Galle, Weligam