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 8 February 2010
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Relief organization preparing for the rainy season in Haiti

08/02/2010

Relief efforts in Haiti will face a new challenge with the start of the rainy season, according to the UN humanitarian coordinator there.

man putting up tent

man putting up tent

Kim Bolduc says shelter has been provided to a quarter of the one million people, whose homes collapsed in the earthquake. But she says the tents and plastic sheeting that have been distributed will not withstand the rains, so other solutions need to be found.

"We are trying to identify some sites outside of Port-au-Prince, so that people could be evacuated when the rains come. We have more or less two months and in fact time is getting very short, because rain could come earlier."

The heavy equipment and materials needed to build hurricane-proof shelter cannot be imported until the port resumes functioning, says Ms. Bolduc.

She adds that half a million residents of the capital Port-au-Prince have already left the city, but they are going back to places that even before the earthquake did not have the resources to support them.

Meanwhile, food distribution has reached nearly all of the 2 million residents in need and water is being provided to 800 thousand people. Sanitation is still critical, with only 5% of the required latrines put in place.

Bissera Kostova, United Nations.

duration: 1'12"

Sound bites

We are trying to identify some sites outside of Port-au-Prince, so that people could be evacuated when the rains come. We have more or less two months and in fact time is getting very short, because rain could come earlier.
Duration: 14"

They represent a new great concern to us, because they are going back to places that even pre-earthquake were not equipped with any kind of resources to support them and it is giving an additional weight on the families that are receiving members back into their villages or communities.
Duration: 19"

This operation is supposed to be completed in another week. We are one week into the operation. By that time 2 million people would have had a reserve of rice for two weeks. After the surge operation, WFP will resume distribution of full dry ration for the same target population of 2 million. In the meantime and while the surge operation was ongoing, supplies were given to orphanages, to hospitals and to communities that are considered vulnerable.
Duration: 36"

So far 50,000 families, that is 250,000 people of the one million people have received some shelters, that is between the tents available and the plastic sheets that were distributed out.
Duration: 17"

We are now considering the setting up of some hazard resistant or hurricane proof type of shelter. This is obviously a better solution, a more costly one and probably it would take longer to bring them in here. We would recall that the port facilities are not operating and basically these equipment are very heavy and they would need the ports to be open.
Duration: 19"

It is now getting urgent to get agricultural inputs into the country and start preparing for the planting season in May, otherwise if that season is missed it would mean that humanitarian distribution of food will remain needed and at a very large scale for a very long time.