BOGOTA (AlertNet) - A month after the earthquake that devastated the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, food, water and emergency medical care are reaching more and more survivors, but
shelter and sanitation remain inadequate, aid agencies said.
As Haiti held a nationwide day of mourning on Friday for the dead -- which number 212,270 according to government figures -- hundreds of thousands of survivors were sheltering in the 500 or so overcrowded makeshift camps in the capital. Others were sleeping in the open using bed sheets and scraps of metal strung between branches of trees and poles as shelter.
Adequate shelter is becoming an urgent priority with the rainy season looming in late March. The Caribbean's hurricane season follows soon after which means that relief groups are in a race against time to provide tents, plastic sheeting and tarpaulins for use as emergency shelter.
So far only around 49,000 tarps have been distributed along with 23,000 family-sized tents, according to a report by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
"With rains there's a greater danger of disease spreading," said Nick Guttmann, head of Christian Aid's humanitarian division in Haiti. "By the time the rains come and then the
hurricanes, people will have to have proper shelter. It's key to their well-being."
In the densely populated capital, finding space to house the homeless is a major challenge.
The Haitian government has identified eight sites for temporary settlements outside the city, where it hopes to provide shelter for a total of 160,000 people. But many Haitians
are reluctant to be uprooted from the city in which they were born and where relatives have still to be found and buried.
DELIVERING AID
In the first two weeks following the 7.0-magnitude quake, international relief operations were criticised for slow delivery of water, food and medical supplies to quake survivors.
This was largely blamed on a lack of clear leadership and poor coordination among U.N. agencies, the U.S military, and a myriad
of aid groups working in Haiti.
However, since then some of the logistical challenges that hampered initial delivery efforts -- such as fuel shortages, congested air traffic, and frequent power cuts -- have have been largely overcome.
Improvements in infrastructure have allowed aid to flow more quickly. At the capital's main port, repairs to the dock and a crane facility, together with the installation of two floating
docks is allowing the port to handle up to 1,500 containers a day.
"I actually think that weve done a good job of speeding up effective distribution of food," Lewis Lucke, the U.S. response coordinator for Haiti, recently told reporters in Port-au-Prince.
But heavy road traffic at the border between Haiti and neighbouring Dominican Republic continues to slow down the flow of aid, as does traffic in the capital.
With 63 million tonnes of rubble still needed to be removed, the clean-up operation is an urgent priority, and some roads remain impassable. Over the weeks, food distribution has gradually become more organised and coordinated.
The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) says it has provided food to more than two million people, while 1.6 million have received a two-week ration of rice in the past 11 days.
In its latest report on the situation, OCHA said over 900,000 people are being provided with drinking water each day, five litres for each person every day, at 300 water distributions sites across the capital and other quake affected cities including Leogane and Jacmel.
But the emergency phase is not over and the pace of aid distribution remains slow, says medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) (Doctors Without Borders).
"It's still hard to obtain access to food and shelter, both of which are limited," said Dr Marie-Pierre Alli, president of MSF after a recent field visit to Haiti.
"Overall, basic needs are not yet being met, which inevitably creates tensions and, possibly, security risks in the long term," she added.
She said providing mental health healthcare to deal with trauma experienced by quake survivors was another challenge as was getting aid to the 263,000 survivors who fled the capital to seek refuge in surrounding rural areas.
"There are challenges I think every day with ensuring we get the aid to all the locations it needs to go", U.S. Lieutenant General Ken Keen, Commander of the Joint Task Force in Haiti,
recently told reporters in Port-au-Prince.
Here's a snapshot of the latest in various sectors:
* HEALTH
A U.N. vaccination programme is underway, while some of the 300,000 or so injured, according to official figures, are being treated in over 90 hospitals.
Doctors are treating fewer patients with trauma injuries, which now account for around 10 per cent of cases. But there is growing concern among aid agencies that medical supplies and
over-stretched hospitals will not be able to cope with the estimated 63,000 pregnant women, who were forced to leave their homes following the quake.
* SANITATION
With one toilet available for every 50 people, and with only five percent of the needed toilets built, clearing human waste and ensuring enough toilets for people living in streets and in
camps is another major challenge. Port-au-Prince was left without sanitation. Excretia disposal in particular remains of great concern, and as conditions only worsen so does the risk of
potential epidemics of water-borne disease, according to a report by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) published on Friday.
* RISING FOOD PRICES
Haitians in and around Port-au-Prince are struggling to buy what food there is available as food prices rise due to an increase in the demand for staple foods. The price of imported
rice is 25 percent higher and wheat flour over 65 percent higher than before the quake, according to the WFP.
Acute malnutrition rates among children are expected to rise in the coming months, the U.N. says.
The coming harvests are expected to be poor, placing further pressure on dwindling food supplies.
It is feared that, because of lack of rain, the
February/March harvest will be comparatively poor in the bread basket of the region, according to the latest IFRC report.
Aid groups are now focusing on ensuring farmers have enough seed stocks to sow crops in time for the planting season in March.
In the capital's streets, though, life is gradually getting back to normal. Banks and some businesses are open, while trade is picking up every day on the streets and in the city's markets.
Some schools in unaffected areas have re-opened and the Haitian government hopes to get children and teachers back to school by the end of March.
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