Haiti is still facing important humanitarian needs with more than 490,000 people living in camps, a cholera epidemic that so far claimed the lives of 7,040 people and a situation of food insecurity affecting more than 45 per cent of the population.
An other risk factor is Haiti’s high level of vulnerability to natural disasters, particularly during the rain and hurricane season from April to November.

In Haiti, the leading cause for infant mortality and illness in children is contaminated water. Germs for hepatitis, cholera and chronic diarrhea are carried through water used for cooking and drinking. Additionally the absence of a sewage sanitation system has contaminated nearly every water source with human waste, further exacerbated by natural calamities such as hurricanes and the recent earthquake. Water and Sanitation infrastructural damages sustained as a result of the January 12 earthquake exceed $ 235 million (USD) and estimates for recovery and

Under current plans, there will not be enough housing solutions by the end of the year to resolve Haiti's displacement crisis, says IOM.

The problem is particularly acute in the metropolitan area, with limited space and uncertainty over land ownership.

"Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are likely still to be living in displacement camps by the end of 2011," Luca Dall'Oglio, IOM Haiti's Chief of Mission warned.

Numbers of displaced people living in camps had fallen from an estimated high of 1.5 million in July 2010 to

Key Messages

- Food availability and food access have improved since February/March of this year as conditions continue to stabilize, though sanitation and housing conditions are still far from ideal.

- The cholera outbreak is spreading with serious effects on the production and marketing chain. Thus, food security conditions are likely to deteriorate over the next six months.

- A series of events such as civil disturbances, floods in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, and the cholera outbreak in the Artibonite will restrict the flow of food trade and curtail food

11-01-2011 Interview

A year after the earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January 2010, tens of thousands of buildings still lie in ruins, and Haiti is in the grip of cholera and electoral uncertainty. ICRC Haiti delegation head Riccardo Conti talks about what has been happening and explains what aid workers are doing to meet the ever-increasing needs.

Riccardo, you were in Haiti when the earthquake struck. How do you feel, one year later?

What impresses me most is the incredible resilience of the Haitian people. It's amazing to see how people who have

A COUNTRY AT A CROSSROADS

In any emergency, children are always the most vulnerable. This has been particularly true for children in Haiti since January 12, 2010, when the devastating 7.0 earthquake reduced buildings to rubble, destroyed much of the nation's fragile infrastructure and extinguished the lives of 230,000 people. Approximately 46 percent of Haiti's population is under the age of 181, making Save the Children's efforts to meet their unique needs a critical element in the country's larger emergency response and subsequent recovery.

Nearly one year later, the children of

Note: The last fact sheet was dated October 8, 2010.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

- On October 27, the nineteenth named storm of this hurricane season, Tomas, formed off the northeastern coast of South America. After developing into a tropical storm, Tomas made landfall in Barbados on October 30. Tomas became a Category One hurricane as it approached St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where it collapsed bridges and destroyed houses, crops, roads, and other infrastructure. On November 4, the storm passed Jamaica as a tropical storm and caused little

For the past two weeks, ACTED staff has been dedicated to responding to the outbreak of cholera which started in the Artibonite region on October 17th, in order to prevent the spread of the disease to other areas, including to the capital city of Port-au-Prince, located one hundred kilometers away.

Drinkable water for 1350,000 persons

Active in the region since 2004 and committed on disaster risk reduction and early warning projects, ACTED was able to mobilize straight away its resources to provide potable water to the populations