Haiti shelter cluster reaches nearly a million people in one of the fastest shelter-relief operations of recent years
24 March 2010
Port-au-Prince (24 March 2010) – Three quarters of the 1.3 million homeless people in the Haitian quake zone have now received emergency-shelter materials (tarpaulins, tents and toolkits) ten weeks after the disaster that left much of the south of the country in ruins.
The number of people reached by what is now a total of more than 50 agencies distributing shelter-relief materials under cluster coordination is 976,775 – just past the 75 per cent mark.
The shelter cluster, which is coordinated by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), is on course to reach 100 per cent coverage by 1 May – the original target date and the start of the peak month of the Haitian rainy season.
“We’ve been reaching very nearly 100,000 people a week on average since the quake,” said Gregg McDonald, leader of the IFRC cluster-coordination team.
“However, shelter relief did not really begin in Haiti until after the search and rescue phase was over.
“If we average the response from the beginning of the third week after the disaster, the cluster has been reaching more than 122,000 people a week.”
After Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, where the estimated total in need of shelter relief was 2.4 million people, the 50 per cent coverage mark was reached after 12 weeks, at an average of just over 100,000 people a week, according to new data compiled by the shelter cluster.
Shelter agencies reached an average of 75,000 people a week with emergency relief after the earthquake in Padang, Indonesia, last year, including the search and rescue phase.
After the 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake in Indonesia, shelter-relief coverage averaged 98,900 a week, also including the search and rescue phase.
“The challenges in Haiti have been huge,” McDonald adds. “Loss of key government agencies, shortage of transport, rubble in the streets, security issues.
“Against that backdrop, this is a considerable achievement, and a reflection of the way agencies involved have pulled together.”
Emergency-shelter distribution is just one part of the drive to help quake-affected people survive the looming rainy season. Measures being pursued by other clusters as part of the wider disaster-preparedness effort in Haiti include:
• Structural assessment of houses that may be safe to return to
• Relocation of displaced people to safe sites away from flood zones
• Clearance of municipal drains in Port-au-Prince
• Improved drainage and flood-resistant sanitation in existing camps.
“It’s exactly because the rainy season is fast approaching that agencies continue to deliver emergency shelter as quickly as possible,” said McDonald. “We’re determined to get to full coverage before 1 May, if not sooner.”
“The rains are going to have a massive impact, and things are going to get worse before they get better.”
“Everyone involved in this response needs to do their utmost to make sure people are as prepared as they can be for what is going to be a very tough rainy season.”
Several agencies working with the shelter cluster have now developed prototype “transitional” houses – small, mainly wood-frame structures that can be built cheaply and easily, and potentially in large numbers.
But of the few sites identified by the Haitian government for potential resettlement, none is yet available for building.
The link to this press release is http://www.ifrc.org/Docs/News/pr10/2010.asp
For more information on shelter coordination in Haiti see www.shelterhaiti.org
Filed under: Caribbean, News Tagged: | Caribbean, drainage, earthquake, emergency, haiti, houses, ifcr, red crescent, red cross, relief, shelter
