| Haiti's Disaster Recovery Update Location: New York Author: Patty A. Walton Date: Monday, June 14, 2010 The January 12th earthquakes in Haiti left the country's infrastructure in destruction and the people in devastation. The latest available statistics provided by the Haitian authorities indicate more than 222,500 people were killed, greater than 300,000 injured, and over 597,800 people were displaced from Port-au-Prince to other parts of the country. Although the remaining U.S. troops returned home last week from Haiti, it still remains in great need and continues to hold the title of the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Access to shelter and electricity are critical as Haiti works to rebuild and recover from the destruction caused by the earthquakes five months ago. In March it was reported that tents and tarpaulins were supplied to approximately 60 percent of the 1.3 million people in need. This was according to United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who visited Haiti on March14th, when he met with President René Préval and Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive in Port-au-Prince. He also praised the progress made in supplying emergency food and water. The Secretary-General also reported in March that the revised Flash Appeal for the year, totaling $1.4 billion, was 49 percent funded. Flash Appeals are the way that the many agencies respond to a sudden humanitarian crisis. They are used to coordinate their response and present a unified set of needs to donors. The original Flash Appeal for Haiti created in January was $575 million for a planning and budgeting horizon of six months. A Flash Appeal provides a concise overview of urgent life-saving needs and a plan to address acute needs for up to six months based on the best available information at the time of writing. In preparation for hurricane season, which began in June, UN agencies and their partners worked to provide as much "transitional shelter" as they could. Transfer shelters are more solidly built structures with roofs made of wood or metal that can better protect against hurricanes. The target was to establish about 120,000 transitional shelters, covering about 600,000 people, roughly 50 percent of the homeless. Meanwhile, there was an exercise in progress to assess the safety of structures to determine whether displaced people might be able to move back into their own homes. Tens of thousands of Haitians who lost their homes in Port-au-Prince migrated to rural villages or temporary encampments for shelter. Many international aid organizations continue to build clinics, schools, administrative centers and warehouses in villages in remote areas without access to basic services. Many of these new buildings still lack electricity and necessary equipment. Portable generators are not helpful because they require fuel that is in short supply and must be trucked in over dirt roads that can become impassable in the rainy season. According to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), $1.5 million in combined grants from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the IDB will soon provide many villages with equipment and stand-alone solar power systems capable of providing electricity to the cluster of support buildings, together with solar refrigerators to maintain vaccines in emergency hospitals. Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF), a non-profit group experienced with installing solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in Haiti, was awarded a contract to install and operate systems in villages and hospitals selected by the Haitian government. SELF will provide maintenance and training the first year of operation while preparing Haiti's public electricity company, Electricité d'Haïti (EDH), to eventually take over maintenance. Prior to the earthquakes, the EDH along with the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communications (MTPTC) and the Bureau of Mines and Energy (BME) developed a 10-year plan. This plan is titled "Haiti Energy Sector Development Plan for 2007 through 2017" and was developed to organize improvement efforts with the support of the International Agency for Atomic Energy (IAEA). There have been no online updates to this plan available and it is unclear if it is being used to guide decision-makers or other development efforts in the disaster recovery activities related to restoring electric transmission or power production. Other problems besides housing and electricity continue plaguing Haiti's efforts to recuperate from the disaster. The destruction affected about 105,000 homes, 1,300 schools, 50 hospitals, the presidential palace, parliament, courts and the port. Yet approaching six months after the earthquakes, no major reconstruction contracts have been awarded by the government. Hundreds of millions of dollars was spent by governments and private groups for emergency relief. Most was spent without competitive bidding and represents only a fraction of what eventually will be required. A small percent of the pledged foreign aid has been released, caught up either in government or legal red tape, or in many of the other general complications of dealing with Haiti. The U.S. Congress is still considering a bill that would provide up to $2 billion to Haiti. While waiting for funds, Haiti suffers logistical and legal issues, like obtaining permission to tear down buildings whose owners perished in an earthquake, slowing the entire process to rebuild. Meanwhile, land that is cleared for construction is vulnerable to being taken over by squatters. Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, who will oversee the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission with former U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, said financing and construction contracts would start to be issued within months. That sounds like promising news. However, there is not much open communication online about it because many companies who want to bid for government contracts don't want to talk about it because they don't want appear to be exploiting a disaster. Also, they are actively competing for contracts to clear rubble, build new roads, construct drainage systems, restore electrical grids, and rebuild commercial and government offices. Many companies have invested tens of millions of dollars into reconstruction in Haiti and need government contracts to recoup their investments. These companies are investing in hopes to win bids when the pledged international support, projected to be $10 billion over the next decade, starts opening up to contractors. Also vying for opportunities are companies from the neighboring Dominican Republic that have experience operating in Haiti and easier access to the scarce heavy equipment needed in major construction projects. Because of this advantage, many U.S. companies have developed partnerships and alliances with Dominican Republic companies to create stronger proposals for work when bidding processes begin. All the companies are confronting Haiti's reputation for corruption. Although these companies cannot project the exact amount in dollars of the opportunities in Haiti, one company was awarded nearly $900 million from the U.S. government for debris removal after Hurricane Katrina, collecting and processing some 21 million cubic yards of wreckage. Therefore, even if the money and authority to make improvements are slow to materialize, the possibilities are promising enough to keep companies waiting patiently to start more significant efforts to rebuild Haiti's infrastructure.
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