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Haiti
Haiti's Clean-up Progresses in the Caribbean
As Asia's Tsunami Burden Continues to Rise
Even as the world struggles to comprehend the ever-rising
death toll from December’s tsunami in south Asia, USAID
continues to deal with the devastation in Haiti from last
year’s Tropical Storm Jeanne.
It seems like eons ago when Tropical Storm Jeanne skirted
the northern departments of Haiti last September and unleashed
a deluge of water down its mountain passes. Downstream, the
city of Gonaives, which felt only a drizzle of precipitation
during the storm, received wild torrents of water that, fed
from the mountain rivers, leveled nearly everything in its
wake. Similarly, on the other side of the island, urban Port
de Paix was similarly devastated.
In total, over 3,000 Haitians died, including 2,326 in Gonaives
alone. An estimated 35,000 homes in Gonaives were affected
with nearly 5,000 destroyed or damaged. Almost all the city’s
397 elementary and 54 secondary schools were damaged and closed.
Gonaives’ hospital was damaged and closed down indefinitely,
and health care made available primarily through small health
centers. With the entire watershed already denuded because
of deforestation, an estimated 70 percent of the region’s
agricultural areas were damaged.
Adding to nature’s wrath, Haiti’s political unrest
added to the turmoil, as the country’s gangs fought
each other over the relief supplies distributed in the immediate
aftermath of the disaster, heightening an already tense security
environment.
“Following President Bush’s lead, USAID has responded
to humanitarian crises all over the world,” said Adolfo
A. Franco, assistant administrator of USAID for the Latin
America and Caribbean region. “In Haiti – especially
in the Gonaives area – under Administrator Natsios’
direction, USAID is working tirelessly today to help return
the lives of so many people to a sense of normalcy.”
To date, USAID has provided an estimated $118 million to
countries in the Caribbean to assist in their relief and reconstruction
efforts following the several hurricanes and tropical storms
that ravaged the region. These include Jamaica, Grenada, Bahamas
and Trinidad and Tobago, in addition to Haiti. Haiti received
an estimated $46 million.
USAID views its role in Haiti in two phases: the first in
providing $8 million in immediate relief to the victims (usually
in the form of food, temporary shelter, medicine and emergency
health care) and the second $38 million to begin the reconstruction
of roads, public buildings, drainage canals, homes and small
infrastructure.
Much of the assistance has been channeled through USAID partners
such as CARE, Catholic Relief Services, the World Food Program
and World Vision, according to Jerry Barth, senior advisor
on Haiti for USAID. Targeted food distributions continue to
provide food rations to approximately 80,000 people per month.
Many of these organizations supervise cash-for-work activities
under which displaced Haitians are hired to carry out the
actual reconstruction, often in their own communities. This
serves the dual purpose of providing families with income
when their means of livelihood were destroyed by the storm.
“In early January, we had as many as 5,000 Haitians
working under these programs,” Barth said. “At
one time we had 100 work teams moving and clearing some 15,300
cubic meters of mud from the city centers.”
He added, “In one neighborhood as soon as the crew
started working, the entire neighborhood joined in with its
own tools to assist the cash-for-work crew. It’s said
to be one of the cleanest areas in town.”
Other areas are still reeling from the storm. In the villages
of Ti Carenage and Etang, farmers lost between 80 to 90 percent
of their crops. Some urgent repairs to a small irrigation
canal have improved the situation, but a drought has burdened
the completion of the repair.
In areas outside of Gonaives and Port de Paix, irrigation
pumps are being repaired, seeds are being distributed to farmers
whose crops were destroyed, rehabilitation of canals has begun,
and road repairs are being planned.
Meanwhile, the security situation in Gonaives has remained
relatively calm throughout January. This has allowed the continued
progress of clean-up and rehabilitation projects in the city,
as well as a vibrant upswing in economic activities.
“We at USAID have our work cut out in Haiti, but reports
are surfacing that many Haitians who did have not had access
to hospital care are now receiving competent medical attention,”
Barth said. “Just as important, some areas of Gonaives
seem to be bustling with even more economic activity before
the floods.”
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