Haiti Humanitarian Bulletin - Issue 60, April 2016

HIGHLIGHTS

• Recurrent floods have been recorded during the month of May especially in the West, North, Center, and Nippes department. More than 9,000 families have been affected and thousands of homes were damaged.
• The humanitarian community and the Haitian government are determined to eradicate the cholera epidemic and launched a vaccination campaign in this context.
• An assessment conducted by the CNSA and WFP shows that drought was the major shock experienced during 2015 by more than half (60%) of households in the areas affected by drought.
• More than 26 million of the 194 million requested in the humanitarian response plan for the year 2016 have been received, a month after the launch of the plan.

April’s rains are of concern to the humanitarian community

More than 9000 families have been affected and thousands of homes damaged by floods According to the Directorate of Civil Protection (DPC), the rains that occurred during the month of April have caused flooding in several parts of the country, particularly in the West, North, Central and Nippes departments. The rains left a balance of more than 9,000 homes flooded, 6 people dead and 6 others wounded. It also caused the loss of livestock and the destruction of plantations and agricultural areas.

The 6 dead and 6 wounded were reported in Port-au-Prince and Delmas (Floods of April 23 to 24) in the West Department. In this department, more than 9,500 families have been affected, particularly in Port-auPrince (112), Cité Soleil (5,700) Arcahaie (485), Gressier (200) Ganthier (325), Cabaret (1,800) and Leogane (950). Rainfalls also caused flooding of several houses and losses in livestock and plantations in Leogane (Floods of 12 to 13 April). Other communes in the Center (Lascahobas Savanette) and Nippes (Barradères) departments experienced heavy flooding during the month that damaged several homes and affected dozens of families.

The response of the authorities and some recommendations

Through the mobilization of decentralized structures and brigadiers’ civil protection, the Haitian government and humanitarian partners have evacuated dozens of families living in risk areas to evacuation shelters. They also proceeded to the distribution of non-food items. The Ministry of Public Works, Transport, Communication and Energy conducted the collection of sludge and waste from several neighborhoods in the metropolitan area, the dredging of some channels and restored the traffic in some places.

In general, the National Management System for Risks and Disasters recommend among others to continue awareness actions especially in areas at risk, to clean channels and to mobilize resources for the implementation of shelters for populations in areas at risk of new flooding.