Haitians planning to relocate millions
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JACMEL, Haiti -- Haiti has approved plans for more than a dozen sprawling tent cities in and around Port-au-Prince, the first step in an epic relocation effort that could reshape the country with as many as 1 million people displaced by the earthquake finding new places to live.
Here in one of the cities hardest hit by the earthquake, as in the capital, housing needs are acute, and demand for shelter has intensified. Officials with the Haitian government and the United Nations yesterday said they were moving as quickly as possible to establish organized camps, with water, food and health care, before the rainy season starts to peak in May.
"A lot of these people have maybe a sheet on four sticks over their heads right now," said Niurka Pineiro, spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration, or IOM. "It's really urgent that we get these tents, so we can provide a little better cover from the elements."
Haitian and international officials, aware that these camps may become permanent, are hotly debating locations. In Phase 2 of the plan, private companies would be contracted to build apartment complexes and homes with the help of residents living in the tents. "We are hoping that this concentration of people will lead to work," Tourism Minister Patrick Delatour said after meeting with President Rene Preval. "They will help build their own housing."
Already, work has begun on government land near the suburb of Croix des Bouquets. U.N. troops from Brazil have begun leveling the ground in preparation for a tent city for around 30,000 people. Officials hope to house 100,000 people with the dozen or so sites selected so far, which include the lawn of the prime minister's office, but getting the tents to Haiti remains a difficult challenge.
A handful arrived Wednesday, and a larger shipment from Turkey and other countries came yesterday, but IOM's Ms. Pineiro said thousands more would be needed.
"We are really looking for family-sized tents," she said. "But at this point, we'll take anything."
First Published January 22, 2010 12:45 am
