It is etched in our collective memory. The earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010. There were hundreds of thousands of deaths. A large part of the Haiti population became homeless and just when Haiti started to recover a little, it was struck by hurricane Matthew this year. Again, many people lost their lives and hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes.
Gerard Steijn has a lot of experience in working in disaster areas. He noticed that after a disaster people are accommodated in emergency tents for too long and thus not given the opportunity to build up their lives again. He has invented a way to turn the debris that is formed after a disaster into concrete blocks, with which earthquake-resistant houses can be built fast by means of a mobile factory he designed.
He has spent five years developing it and now, the mobile factory is finished. Reporter Anne van der Veen went to have a look in Maarssen.
Listen to the interview here >>
