Update on Haiti: Eight Months After the Earthquake
The Interim Haiti Recovery Commission has posted on its website http://www.cirh.ht/index.jsp?sid=1&id=9&pid=9 , a list of projects that the Commission has approved for financing. The total cost of approved projects is 1.6 billion dollars. The Commission announced at its last meeting on August 17 that it had collected nearly 1 billion dollars which represents 10% of the total pledged by international donors. This one billion falls short of the 1.6 billion needed for the following projects classified into 11 categories:
1. Agriculture: 200 million dollars to increase sustainable agricultural production.
2. Water and Sanitation: 115 million to provide water and sanitation services in Port-au-Prince.
3. Education: 26 million (and 68 million still needed) to help students return to school in October. Funds will be used to subsidize private schools and to feed students hot meals. (It appears that the government will not build its own public schools.)
4. Debris Removal: No funds have been allocated for this purpose, although there is a budget request of 17 million. (So far only 2% of the rubble has been removed . Apparently, inability to locate property owners is stalling much of the rubble removal. According to Le Nouvelliste, the government appears to be acting more aggressively now, giving owners two weeks notices before clearing the rubble in downtown Port-au-Prince) http://www.lenouvelliste.com/article.php?PubID=1&ArticleID=83428&PubDate=2010-09-09
5. Health: 70 million has been allocated to help improve the health care system in Haiti through cooperation with the Health Ministries of Cuba and Brazil. 15 million has been allocated to build a new teaching hospital in Mirebalais to be run by Partners in Health/ Zanmi Lasante. http://www.pih.org/index.php/news/entry/pih-breaks-ground-on-world-class-teaching-hospital-in-mirebalais-haiti/
17 million has been allocated to rebuild the University Hospital in Port-au-Prince in cooperation with France.
6. Housing: 13 million for housing and shelter. (Although the Commission has mentioned in news releases that “disaster preparedness” is one of its priorities, funds allocated for this purpose does not reflect its important status.)*
*UNASUR, the Union of South American Nations recently contributed 100 million that could be used for housing and “disaster preparedness.”
http://kreyolnetwork.com/unasur-pledged-100-million-dollars-to-assist-haiti-reconstruction/091212
7. Infrastructure: 470 million for road construction. (Road building appears to be the Commission’s priority, receiving nearly half of the one billion dollars currently available in the Haitian Reconstruction Fund.)
8. Job Creation: No funds have yet been allocated for a project aimed at creating 300,000 temporary “cash for work” jobs.
9. Energy: 8 million to provide electricity in Port –au-prince with USAID assistance, and 2 million in the Artibonite/ Mirebalais region with Brazil’s assistance. ( There is also a plan “to connect Haiti to the Dominican Republic’s electricity grid”. This would create an export market for Dominican electricity while making Haiti more dependent rather than self-reliant in energy production.)
10. Institutional: No funds have yet been allocated for evaluating government buildings in each of the 10 departments of Haiti.
11. Finance and Investment: 25 million to provide loans, grants, credit to individuals and businesses affected by the earthquake.
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