AMERSFOORT, the Netherlands — The United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) has selected water expert Mathijs van Ledden to become a member of its emergency response teams deployed during and after international natural disasters, according to a press release.
Van Ledden, continued the release, is the Business Development Director for Flood Risk Reduction at Royal HaskoningDHV.
“We selected Mathijs van Ledden to take part in the UNDAC induction course because of his technical background and experience with big floods,” said Peter Muller, Humanitarian Affairs Officer at the UN.
Van Ledden graduated from the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and completed his PhD in 2003, noted the release.
According to the release, he was in New Orleans from 2006 to 2010 as project manager at the New Orleans District helping with the 100-year levee design and also acted as part of an emergency response team during the flooding in New Orleans and in Bangkok in 2011.
“After training, I could be called away at a moment’s notice to anywhere in the world,” said van Ledden. “This is a wonderful opportunity to help people and governments at a time when they are most in need.”
More information about UNDAC can be found here.
