LONDON (AlertNet) - Progress in providing more secure shelter for Haiti's earthquake survivors is being bogged down by land issues ahead of the onset of the storm season, the U.N.'s top aid official said.
More than a million Haitians were left homeless after the Jan. 12 quake reduced much of the capital Port-au-Prince to rubble.
The need for safer shelter is becoming acute with the hurricane season due to start next month, prompting fears that thousands of people living in tents in makeshift camps could be at risk from flooding and mudslides.
Some aid agencies have criticised the government and the United Nations for being slow to set up alternative safer sites, but John Holmes, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, said the process faced several problems.
"There wasn't a proper land registry system (before the earthquake) and this complicates the issue of the government taking land and allocating it for resettlement," he told AlertNet in an interview this week, adding that legal documents relating to land title were destroyed in the disaster.
Another factor was the scarcity of suitable land for resettlement in Port-au-Prince and the government's hesitation to build large numbers of "transitional shelters", made of wooden frames and galvanised iron roofs and designed to last a couple of years.
"They say 'well these will probably turn into permanent settlements - is that actually what we want?'" Holmes said.
"I think there's not a shortage of materials or of capacity to build these shelters, it's a question of (the government) saying right this is where we're going to build, this is how many people we're going to put there, now let's do it."
He added that the delay was "a bit frustrating".
AFRAID TO GO HOME
Up to 8,000 people deemed most at risk of flooding from the storms due to start in June have been relocated to a safer area outside Port-au-Prince. Some 400 to 500 transitional shelters have been built so far, leaving thousands of homeless still in a vulnerable position.
Haiti's government says more than 300,000 people may have been killed in the earthquake described by some experts as the deadliest natural disaster in modern history. It hit what was already the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.
Governments, multilateral institutions and non-governmental organisations around the world pledged nearly $10 billion for Haiti's reconstruction at a donor conference in March.
Although the quake damaged thousands of homes and buildings, some have been assessed by experts as safe for people to live in, Holmes said. That would partly ease the shortage of long-term shelter, but many were reluctant to return to their homes for fear of another powerful tremor, he said.
"Sometimes these are rented properties and they don't have any income for the rent. Sometimes they do move back in but they continue to stay in the camp because they believe there's going to be aid in the camp and there won't be any if they move out," Holmes added.
Another worrying development was the return of many survivors who fled Port-au-Prince immediately after the earthquake to live with relatives in impoverished rural areas and other towns.
"Of course there were no jobs there so some of them have started to come back and are swelling the numbers in the camps to some extent," Holmes said. "People have the impression - probably a false impression - that there are lots of aid goodies that will come their way if they are in camps."
He said coordination and strategic planning had improved since an email he wrote chiding aid agencies working in Haiti was leaked, but the key issue the humanitarian community was grappling with now was shelter.
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