By Bryan Schaaf on Samedi, septembre 6, 2008.
The damage caused by Gustav and Hannah have set Haiti back years. Many have lost their homes and livelihoods. Food security, already precarious, is worse as crops have been destroyed, fruit trees knocked over, and livestock killed. Gonaives, ever prone to flooding, bore the brunt but many other cities and towns were damaged and need assistance. The implications are being felt nationwide. Haiti needs its friends during the long recovery process.
As of Friday, September 5th, the British Red Cross stated 250,000 people are stranded. As of Saturday, September 6th 500 were reported dead. Haitians are doing what they can, taking in the displaced and assiting their communities. The Diaspora is providing financial support and looking for other ways to get involved. Non governmental organizations throughout Haiti are stepping up efforts to assist populations affected by flooding.
In 2004, Tropical Storm Jeanne flooded Gonaives, devastating the city which is situated in a deforested valley, making it very vulnerable. Since that time, long term efforts to protect the city from the next storm were much discussed but never emerged. Now Gonaives has once again flooded - perhaps worse than in 2004. Click here to view BBC aeriel video clips of the damage and here for Reuters video clips on the ground. Matt took a number of overhead photos which have since been widely circulated. You can view several of them by clicking here.
According to the UN Coordinator, Joel Boutroue, "...In Gonaives alone we have some 70,000 people in shelters, and around 250,000 around Gonaives City need our assistance and that of the government, and throughout the country I would say around up to 600,000 people might require our assistance." NGO mobilitiy is limited because of the high water level. UN Troops have been working to collect people from rooftops and have brought in a ship carrying 33 tons of relief supplies. It is now docked in Gonaives. You can view the offloading here. As they did in 2004, Doctors Without Borders arrived to set up a clinic in the Raboteau slum neighborhood. Food for the Poor managed to get a shipment of food and water to Gonaives on Thursday.
CARE and other agencies hope to send larger convoys with water purification systems, food, and other supplies in the coming days if road conditions improve. Access is a problem - helicopters can reach Gonaives but rough seas make sailing difficult. Security is an ongoing concern.
In addition to Gonaives, many other parts of Haiti have been impacted. For example, Hinche (which is located on a plateau!) has flooded as well. The Central Hospital is now essentially a public shelter. The facility has been turned into a shelter for the thousands of families that have been flooded out of their homes. The Ministry of Health has requested funds to help purchase supplies for these people (sheets, blankets, food, medicine & supplies, and beds). There is a huge concern as well of the problem of contamination with thousands of latrines that have been destroyed and flooded. Project Medishare will do what it can to support the Ministry of Health to care for the displaced.
Infrastructure, including roads, has been impacted. Cross International passed on a report by the MINUSTAH Regional Security Office that the bridge from Ennery to Gonaives has collapsed and is now impassable. Rivers on the road from Port de Paix to Gonaives have overflowed making the route treacherous. Currently, its use is restricted to UN staff. The road from Gros Morne to Gonaives is very bad and is also restricted. The road from Gonaives to Saint Marc is flooded in Savanne Desolee but otherwise usable. On Route Nationale One from Saint Marc to Port au Prince, the bridge at Montrouis has collapsed and the road becomes impassable. The road from Cap Haitian to Hinche, difficult in the best of times, is impassable at Saint Raphael. The river south of Hinche has flooded, making travel to Mirebelais impossible. Roads from Mirebelais to Terre Rouge and from Terre Rouge to Port au Prince are still passable.
The bridge at Grand Goave is on the verge of collapsing, complicating travel from Port au Prince on Route National Two. Heavy duty vehicles (but not Land Rovers) can make the trip from Ti Goave to Miragoane. Though the bridge at Duparc, between Miragoane and Les Cayes has collapsed, there is a workable detour. Transportation from Port au Prince to Jacmel is still possible although landslides are a concern. The route from Jacmel to Marigot is blocked due to the high water level.
According to Reuters, Ad Melkert the associate administrator of the U.N. Development Program admonished international donors to do more stating, "The poverty in the rain and mud of Haiti that I witnessed is nothing less than a disgrace...Many actors or potential actors try to play their part, ranging from the national government to multilateral and bilateral donors and NGOS. They all need to do more and better."
The United Nations and Haiti are also set to launch a joint international appeal. Preval intends to hold emergency talks with donor countries prior. Switzerland will provide 1.15 million CHF, the bulk of which will go to the World Food Programme. The U.S. Embassy declared a disaster, freeing up $100,000 for hygiene kits, plastic sheeting and water jugs for up to 5,000 families were expected to arrive Thursday but that the biggest problem is reaching victims.
The USAID Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) has sent five tons of aid, including emergency kits and tarpaulins. On August 28, the first member of a three-person USAID/OFDA team arrived in Haiti. The team is working closely with USAID/Haiti to coordinate the U.S. Government's humanitarian response with the the Haitian government, UN agencies, and other organizations.
Jonathan Katz reported that the U.S. Southern Command (SOCOM) diverted the amphibious USS Kearsarge from Colombia to Haiti to assist in the relief effort. The ship will arrive Sunday and has a medical unit that includes four operating rooms and 53 beds.
France was sending a ship to Haiti with a helicopter aboard to help with search and rescue operations and channelling aid to the hardest hit areas. Spain also was sending four jetloads of humanitarian aid to Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica the European Commission has launched "fast-track" aid action for two million euros (2.9 million dollars) to provide relief for Haitians. Canada announced Saturday it would distribute 600,000 dollars.
The Red Cross launched an urgent appeal Friday for 2.3 million euros (3.4 million dollars) for Haiti. Supporting this appeal would be an excellent way to help Haiti as would be supporting the NGOs that are stepping up their operations including Save the Children, Project Medishare, Episcopal Relief and Development, Catholic Relief Services, CARE, and others.
I went through other blogs to see what people are saying. Elizabeth Roebling is following relief efforts closely and has posted some photos on her Changing Perspectives Blog. Subalternate's blog carried Al Jazeera footage from Gonaives. Veniatrenvm is carrying news pieces. Graham Russell is calling for "digital advocacy" while Haiti Rescue Center is appealing for financial assistance. Wadner Pierre, who blogs from Port au Prince but is originally from Gonaives, asks that readers support assistance efforts in his home city. Global Voices Online carried a blog by Jamie Mendes-Franco on the impact of the tropical storms on Haiti and other countries in the Caribbean.
In the midst of all this, the political deadlock in Haiti officially ended. Caribbean 360 carried an article noting that Prime Minister Michèle Pierre-Louis passed the final test that now allow her to govern the country. She will also serve as Minister of Justice and Public Security and has chosen other Cabinet members. The Cabinet includes seven ministers from the previous government. She announced her top priorities as food security, employment, infrastructure upgrades, and advancing health care. Better preparing for and responding to the inevitable tropical storms will help preserve gains in each of these areas.
Hurricane season is not over. It is too early to say whether Ike will spare Haiti. Any rain is too much at this point. Please consider making a donation to an organization operating in Haiti right now. Shiloh Waylen passed on a powerpoint on the current situation and I have attached it to this blog. You can use it to make a presentation at your church, Rotary Club, or other organizations you belong to. Each of can and should play a role in the reconstruction process. Haiti needs us all.
Bryan
Progressive civil society organisations call for action
Position of Numerous Organizations and Institutions on the Situation Facing the Haitian Survivors of the Hurricanes, Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike, September 14, 2008.
http://www.grassrootsonline.org/news-publications/press-releases/movemen...
The organizations signing this note honor the memory of all the people who lost their lives due to the four hurricanes that have hit each of the country's 10 departments. We offer our solidarity to all of the victims' families and to all the people suffering from the consequences of the four hurricanes.
What is the situation today?
For some time Haiti has been experiencing tremendous despair and desolation that has been made worse by the 2008 hurricane season. After having been hit by Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike, we are exhausted by having to count the number of dead, the homeless, the orphans, and trying to find the people who are still missing. And on top of all this we have to calculate the terrible economic impact on the country at this time.
In nearly all corners of the country we find valleys under water, terrible landslides, vast quantities of earth washed into the sea, huge numbers of trees uprooted, many fields and gardens washed away, countless numbers of livestock drowned, and a lot of houses under water and many others destroyed. Bridges have fallen down and primary and secondary roads have been left inaccessible.
Today we find many people from the towns as well as from the rural areas in passive resignation. It is like ripping open a raw wound, since the country's economy has already taken a huge blow from the political decisions of the Haitian State intertwined with the policies of the IMF, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, World Trade Organization, USAID, etc. The inappropriate policies adopted by these international institutions, together with the bad policies of the Haitian State, have caused this ever-worsening catastrophe, leaving the country unable to respond. The State finds itself in a situation where it has lost authority. It cannot respond to the problems. It cannot manage the national territory when things are normal, much less in times of catastrophe. It does not provide its leaders with the tools to manage, nor to organize, nor to plan ahead. It is even incapable of preserving what is left of natural resources.
One reason that is often given for the way the hurricanes always hit this country is environmental degradation. However this degradation is a result of the economic, social, cultural, and political choices of the ruling class – choices based on an unequal distribution of wealth which encourages the pillage of the country's resources and allows a small group to make millions. That is why when we look at the situation that has developed in the agricultural sector, we see peasants who have difficulty in finding good soil to work with. They are obliged to sit it out in the mountains to hope to grow a little food to feed their families, while it is they in fact who keep the country's economy going.
There are other examples, such as the energy crisis that the country has been going through for some time. The State can never seem to sort out this problem which has become a stick with which to beat the population. The consumption of wood increases day by day – we find bakeries, dry-cleaners, the use of wood for scaffolding poles, all putting pressure on the environment – while at the same time nothing is done to find an alternative source of energy or to increase wood production in the country. We do not see any reforestation program or any programs to protect the environment. The absence of State policies has serious consequences for the issue of housing and other urban problems, because people build wherever they can, and shantytowns spring up like mushrooms.
This dire situation that we are living through today has come at a difficult juncture where the country is already suffering from a food crisis and an increase in the cost of living. What is even more worrying is that the humanitarian relief services are often insufficient, and unable to reach the most needy disaster victims. We have witnessed many who have been saved from the floods, only to die from a lack of food afterwards.
What is to be done? What can we do?
Confronted with this dire situation, we must stop responding with patchwork solutions. It is only by organizing a substantial long-term mobilization that the country will be able to emerge from the hole it is in. We, as human rights and progressive organizations who have signed on to this declaration/statement in complete solidarity with disaster victims, have put together a provisional structure in order to:
- Act as mediators between disaster victims in the peasant community and government officials, as well as NGOs, by giving information so that the rights of the victims are recognized and so that they can get the help they need.
- Assess the hurricane damage in the areas where we are working (and have established contacts), and give support and succor to those communities in their time of need.
On the other hand, we must redouble the fight to get the State to take measures to tackle the roots of the problems by:
Carrying out comprehensive agrarian reform, as called for in the country's Constitution
Clearly defining zones for agriculture, zones for construction, zones for forest use, and zones for forest conservation
Guaranteeing that the country takes responsibility for its own food production and exercises food sovereignty
Reducing the economic pressure on our natural resources, and then setting up, controlling and subsidizing other sources of energy for the country
Increasing the production of wood for consumption
Protesting against the payment of US$5 million due for debt service in September, and insisting that it instead be added to the mere 51 million gourdes (US$1.3 million) that the State has so far allocated for disaster relief
Demanding the State stop paying the external debt and instead uses the money for the reconstruction of the social, economic and physical environment of the country
Signed by the following institutions:
Platfòm Oganizasyon Ayisyen k ap Defanm Dwa Moun yo (POHDH)
Platfòm Ayisyen k ap Plede pou yon Devlòpman Altènatif (PAPDA)
Enstiti Kiltirèl Karl Leveque (ICKL)
Enstiti Teknoloji ak Animasyon (ITECA)
Sosyete Animasyon ak Kominikasyon Sosyal (SAKS)
Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn (SOFA)
Mouvman Demokratik Popilè (MODEP)
Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen (TK)
Pwogram Altènativ Jistis (PAJ)
Solidarite Ant Jèn (SAJ/VEYE YO)
Mouvman Peyizan Papaye (MPP)
CHANDEL (Oganizasyon Popilè pou Edikasyon Popilè)
Sèvis Ekimenik pou Devlopman ak Edikasyon Popilè (SEDEP)
Gwoup Apwi Teknik an Animasyon Pedagojik (GATAP)
Antèn Nòdwès
Fonds International pour le Développement Economique et Social (FIDES)
For authentification:
Camille Chalmers : Platfòm Ayisyen kap Plede pou yon Devlòpman Altènatif (PAPDA)
Antonal Mortimé : Platfòm Oganizasyon Ayisyen kap Defanm Dwa Moun (POHDH)
Translated from Creole by Charles Arthur for the Haiti Support Group
________________________________________________________________
Forwarded as a service of the Haiti Support Group - solidarity with the Haitian people's struggle for human rights, participatory democracy and equitable development - since 1992.
Web site: www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org
Reforestation
Many agencies have been helping in reforestation. We all know the importance of forestation and for that matter reforestation. We are asked to do what we can. That is not enough. Do what is needed or do nothing. You may be helping the problem by doing too little.There are many groups throughout the country doing reforestation for years. I have seen groups with 500 trees to plant, others with 1,000, others with even more, 10,000. These group should get toghether and figure out what is needed on a national basis and where. With the proper concerted effort they can get the trees needed, scheduled the planting in the areas most needed first and act.
Planting trees anywhere is good, but planting trees where most convenient for the group is not really helping. Who has plan on planting in the hills near Gonaives?Who can and who is providing the technical help to determine what should be done and the type of trees to be planted. You must plant the trees that suit the purpose according to their evironmental impact on the region, not just any tree.etc..
Haiti Flooding Powerpoint
Attached. Sorry!
Where is the power point
Where is the power point by Shiloh Waylen ?
Reforestation
I had heard today that a single tree can draw 50,000 gallons of water from an aquifer. If even a portion of that figure is true, it makes a strong argument for reforestation as a disaster mitigation intervention.
Poster un nouveau commentaire