Haiti Quake Updates

Aid agencies have criticized the government for dragging its feet on the thorny land issue as relief agencies work against the clock to find temporary settlements for the homeless before the spring rainy season.

Human Rights Watch said Friday that "there is little evidence that meaningful efforts have been made to negotiate the land acquisition and secure proper land titles. It is essential that this be given priority" and that any appropriations "be done in a non-arbitrary and non-discriminatory manner."

The relief agency Oxfam International warned last week that "The temporary camps where people have congregated are fast becoming over-crowded slums."

"The government ... needs to clarify whether there is government land available or if it needs to confiscate private land instead. These decisions need to be taken quickly."

The Haitian government has seemed to operate on a slower timetable. On Friday, the economist leading a government emergency commission on shelter held a news conference, saying government panels will make decisions in three to four weeks, and that the homes will be built in five or six months.

In the meantime, Charles Clermont said, people in the private sector have offered to build 20,000 to 30,000 temporary homes on private land and, presumably, sell them to the government.

Impromptu camps have sprung up on every bit of available land — school and university grounds, public gardens, a golf course, the central Champ de Mars plaza or simply on sidewalks. But the camps, many made of little more than bed sheets propped up by sticks, have little sanitation, and early sporadic downpours already are adding to the misery of their residents.

Health workers warn the rains can bring disease in the camps — something Haiti's already strained health system can hardly handle.

ActionAid has set up a regular feeding programme in Haiti for more than 15,000 people and will reach another 12,000 in the coming days.

ActionAid has been able to roll out the food distributions with its partner COZPAM in six camps in the Mariani area of Port-au-Prince %u2013 one of the poorest areas of the city %u2013 despite the huge logistical challenges.

The food distributions are taking place every two weeks and each family gets enough nutritious food to last until the next delivery. These distributions will continue for at least another two months.

ActionAid Country Director in Haiti, Jean Claude Fignole, said: %u201COur food aid programme has been going for three weeks now and we have also starting giving out blankets and kitchen sets.

%u201CThe process has been with the full participation of the community and we have given extra help to vulnerable groups like pregnant women, the disabled and the elderly. We work with grassroots organisations which is why we have been able to reach people in a dignified way.%u201D

In addition ActionAid will this week begin delivering food aid to 12,000 people in Jacmel in the south east of the country, which was also hard hit by the earthquake. With partner CROSE we are also planning to give out seeds and tools in Jacmel before the planting season starts in March.

Jean Claude Fignole continued: %u201COur next focus will be on providing shelter ahead of the rainy season in March, helping children get back to school and people get back to work. Another important element of our work will be trauma healing for those who have lost loved ones and been left in shock by the earthquake.%u201D

ActionAid will also be working on the protection of women in the camps and work is also planned in areas which were less affected by the earthquake but have seen an influx of people from the areas which were harder hit.

ActionAid has so far raised more than �5 million for relief and rehabilitation work in Haiti.

Donate now to the ActionAid appeal

Late last week, rain doused the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, heightening the dread of hundreds of thousands of people there who have been living in makeshift shelters since a massive earthquake destroyed great swaths of their city in January.

The rains start in earnest in April. And hurricane season arrives June 1. Cardboard and bed sheets--the materials that now serve as roofs and walls for countless people--are no match for Mother Nature. Even a plastic tarp will offer little comfort when the waters rush and rise. And they will.

This is Haiti where unchecked harvesting of wood--for construction, for charcoal--has left 98 percent of the country deforested, adding to the potential for flooding when heavy rain falls. And with many of the drainage channels around the capital now clogged with debris, where will the water go?

I'm remembering the anxious faces of the Haitians I met recently camped at Centre Sportif de Carrefour, a sports complex where several thousand homeless people had taken refuge under a variety of shelters, many of them constructed from sheets of white plastic stamped with "made in China" logos.

When it rains hard here, said Libermann Lexident, one of the camp leaders, the water pools up to three feet deep. That's hip high on an adult. Everything below three feet gets soaked. Even so, he said, people would rather cope with the flooding than move back to their damaged homes, so profound is the fear the quake has left in its wake.

"If it's raining, it's going to be very hard," said Lexident. "So far, we've been praying. It's been answered. If it rains, we don't know where to go."

Last week's downpour, drumming a warning on the plastic tarps strung across the capital, has heightened the urgency for tens of thousands of homeless families.
Oxfam is distributing tents and plastic sheeting to thousands of them, and estimates indicate that there is enough shelter material in the capital, or en route, to meet the needs of about 50 percent of those who have been displaced. And aid groups think that as many as 40 percent of them could return to their homes if their buildings are declared safe. Oxfam has a team of structural engineers in the capital right now assessing that issue.

But as the rain approaches, the concern isn't just for weather worthy shelter. Sanitation services have become a critical issue as well--especially latrines.

The numbers are frightening.

The UN estimates that the devastated region needs 18,000 toilets, but as the first-month anniversary of the quake approached, aid groups and local workers had been able to dig fewer than 1,000 latrines. Oxfam had installed more than 20 percent of them--testament to our commitment in this area of expertise.

But the need remains enormous, especially as the rains approach and threaten to slop human waste into temporary settlements and crowded camps where there is little room to improve the drainage.

"We now need a surge in effort to improve sanitation facilities for people in Haiti," said Marcel Stoessel, head of Oxfam in the country. "Let us not kid ourselves that this is going to be easy. It requires a Herculean humanitarian effort from all quarters. Around 230,000 people lost their lives on Jan. 12. It is our priority to make sure that we don't let that number grow."

Read more

Oxfam's response to the Haiti earthquake

Map of Oxfam's relief work in Haiti

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