Hundreds, of thousands of victims of Haiti's earthquake remain without the most minimal shelter. As the following two reports explain, the Haitian government has withdrawn its appeal for the rapid establishment of tent shelter camps for all those still left exposed to the elements.
For weeks, the US government, US AID and other international agencies have refused the Haitian government's appeal to establish tent camps. They argue, instead, for a shelter policy that would have victims returning to their neighbourhoods and cobbling together whatever they can, albeit with a promise of providing materials such as corrugated steel for roof cover. US AID calls its policy, if it can be called that, "Thinking Outside the Tent."
One Canadian medical worker to whom we spoke recently said the kind of shelter policy that US AID is talking about was applied following the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. She was there and speaks in favor of it.
Below are links to the two reports in question. They are contained on the
website of Haiti Relief and Reconstruction Watch:
We encourage readers to follow this website regularly and to contribute to
the CHAN mail list any additional information.
Haitian Government Abruptly Changes Course on Shelter Plan
February 25, 2010
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government-
abruptly-
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on-shelter-
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Shelter Still Scarce With Rainy Season Approaching
February 24, 2010
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approaching/
Solidarity,
Haiti Solidarity BC
March 1, 2010
It is difficult from afar to
judge the nature and extent of the debate and controversy over tent shelter in
Haiti. Below are two articles on the subject, one a report from OCHA (United
Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) dated February 25
and the other a statement by William Clinton. According to the UN's figures,
only one third to one half of earthquake victims left homeless have adequate,
emergency shelter.
An aid worker in Leogane wrote
to us on the evening of Saturday, February 27: "Its
been raining hard for more than one hour. I'm going to bed. My tent is wet. I
don't want to think about those plastic covers as a shelter (for displaced people). This is just
horror."
The first article below is a
summary that appears on the website of Relief and Reconstruction Watch. This is
an important site to follow regularly:
http://www.cepr.
net/index.
php/blogs/
relief-and-
reconstruction-
watch/.
More recent information appears on its website.
Haiti Solidarity BC
