Shelter:
DPC (Direccion de la Protection Civile, under the Ministry of the Interior) identified the locations of 14 camps in order to shelter people, as DPC is the authority responsible for this task (while Ministry of Social Affairs is responsible of administrating the camps once they are installed).
DPC has not yet announced their location, but they are not necessarily in PaP, as there is already ongoing a spontaneous process of internal migration towards provinces, such as St. Marc and Artibonite. However, some locations are vulnerable to natural calamities such as flooding, hurricanes etc, and others are already crowded by families who run away from the capital following the earthquake. Moreover, some people will be not willing to move away from their original place. It should be noted that this displaced population would be forced to live in the camps for quite a long time, to allow the re-building of their houses in PaP. Hurricane season begins in September.
Distribution:
The main problems facing distribution (of any kind) are the lack of food, of warehouses (many destroyed by the quake), of trucks and drivers. Starting on January 16, all transportation needs will be coordinated by OCHA.
Since Thursday , WFP has been distributing some food and chlorine tablets in the places (squares, courtyards, gardens, football grounds, etc.) where people have been gathering to spend the day and night in PaP. However, the quantity of food presently available is limited.
OCHA is setting up a mapping with the major points of concentration of population for an improved coordination of aid distribution (food, water and non-food items).
Situation and needs assessment:
A UNDAC team has just begun to carry out the assessment of the situation and the needs. This is of the utmost importance to define the population and their needs. To date it is estimated that 2,000,000 people have been directly affected by the calamity.
UN agencies will begin to take into account the needs of other towns than PaP, such as Jacmel, Petit Goave, Grand Goave, Leogane.
WASH:
UNICEF has the lead in the WASH Cluster. The following actions will be underway beginning January 16.
- Distribution and set up of 26 water bladders that are in stock in UNICEF warehouses (11 of 10,000 liters and 15 of 5,000 liters) will begin on January 17. Implementation is under the responsibility of 3 NGO's partners (Action Contre la Faim, Oxfam GB, Concern International). Bladders will be filled up with water through water trucks, thanks to the collaboration of the main drinking water private companies, such as Brasseries Nationales de Haiti, Culligan, etc.
- 120,000 bottles of 1.5 liters of drinking water were donated by the Brasseries Nationales de Haiti. They will be distributed on Saturday by the Haitian Red Cross and the International Federation of the Red Cross.
- Needs and actions in the field of sanitation (latrines, showers, etc.) will be dealt with by the Cluster on January 16.
Health
WHO is responsible for this Cluster. Mobile clinics and health teams are being set up in town. MSF is carrying out the assessment of all the hospitals in PaP and supporting the functioning of a few of them providing personnel and medical supplies. According to WHO, the major surgical emergencies (trauma and abdominal) have been treated in terrible conditions and unfortunately many injured died because of lack of health infrastructure, medicine and doctors. The afterquake will see increased needs in the management of post-surgery inpatients, as well as orthopedics.
The government has collected 13,000 corpses in two days. However, MINUSTAH will take over the logistic task beginning on Saturday.
To ensure better coordination between UN efforts and the Government, the Minister of the Interior is meeting UN and MINUSTAH focal points daily basis at 7:00 am. Another meeting is held every morning with the Prime Minister.
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Tamar Hahn
Communication Specialist
UNICEF Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean
Telephone: (507) 301-7485
Cell (507) 66763216
Fax: (507) 317 0258
E-mail: thahn@unicef.org
Web: www.unicef.org/lac