In January of this year, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake killed more than 250,000 people in Haiti. Since then the country has been struggling to rebuild and restore infrastructure. The response from the United States was immediate with USAID being charged by President Obama with leading the U.S. government’s response to the crisis.
Ten months later many problems remain. More than a million Haitians are still living on the streets between piles of trash and rubble from destroyed buildings. Even more unfortunate is that none of the $1.15 billion the U.S. promised for rebuilding has arrived. Although 50 other nations pledged more than $8 billion for reconstruction, less than $700 million of that had reached Haiti as of the end of September. The money was pledged by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and was to be used mostly for reconstruction.
One reason for the delay is that in the U.S., although both the House and the Senate passed a bill that would make $917 million available for aid to Haiti, the U.S. Senate has yet to pass an authorization bill that directs exactly how the money will be spent. This is because one senator, Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is holding up the bill because he is opposed to the creation of a senior Haiti coordinator because the United States currently has an ambassador to the country.
Meanwhile, deaths in Port-au-Prince are increasing due to a lack of food and shelter. Data shows a mere 2 percent of the debris and rubble from the earthquake have been removed and 13,000 temporary shelters have been built. A new report released by the international charity Oxfam indicates that the food aid pouring into Haiti is harming the country’s economy, especially its agricultural sector. The majority of Haitians depend on agriculture for their livelihood. –torrance stephens, ph.d.
