UN role for David Sinclair in Haiti

Safedem's David Sinclair will shortly take up a demanding task in the earthquake-shattered Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince following his appointment to the post of demolition engineer/consultant working within UNOPS (United Nations Office of Project Services). Now largely based in the USA, David is well known in the industry around the world, having served as NFDC president, EDA president and an NDA board member over the years.

The earthquake of January 2010 left much of Port-au-Prince in ruins. The remains of more than 250,000 buildings are still to be removed, a task that will commence very shortly under the auspices of the United Nations, and in particular UNOPS, which provides project management, procurement, human resources and financial management, and UN common services on projects around the world.

Phase 1 of a clearance project will be David's initial challenge, for which an area covering 4 square kilometres (1.6 square miles) in the city will be cleared. David's task will be to develop a demolition master plan for the work, including work planning, timings etc, and then train the local workforce to carry out the work.

David told D&Ri: "I am very happy to have been asked to take on the role of demolition engineer/consultant by UNOPS. All my working life I have tendered for jobs for the benefit of myself and my family. At this stage in my working life, it is very pleasing to have been asked to become involved in this large-scale humanitarian demolition project. I hope the first blow will be struck by the end of April"