Tomorrow marks one year since the Haiti earthquake, a tragic event that claimed 230,000+ lives, injured 300,000, and left more than a Million people homeless. It destroyed tens of thousands of buildings including the Presidential palace, governmental buildings, police stations, hospitals, schools, a federal prison, court houses, stores, fuel depots, radio / tv stations, etc.
Not only were these buildings destroyed but their workers were killed. One police station collapsed killing 3/4's of the police force, a hospital collapse killed dozens of nurses, school collapses killed teachers as well as students, etc. The infrastructure of the society was shattered.
On January 10, 2011 I was privileged to have the opportunity to attend a meeting of the minds at York University, looking at the lessons learned from the Haiti earthquake and the recovery over the past year.
While the media presses for an instant solution and short term recovery, the destruction of an infrastructure of a city the size of Toronto or Tampa/St. Petersburg, cannot be restored short term. This combined with the poor conditions before the earthquake.
Before the earthquake only 12% of the population had access to tap water in their homes, only 41% had latrines, 80% lived in poverty, 1% had health insurance, 81% of the buildings were considered fragile, 0.7% had building insurance... Add to this the fact that 20 major earthquakes have occurred in this region over the past 300 years and major hurricanes strike the country every year or two, it will be a long term challenge to rebuild.
Rebuilding Haiti is a decade long project and will require our on-going support.
Organizations that are continuing to make a difference:
Photo: Canadian Forces assisting to repair drainage systems and other infrastructure
Photo credit: Canadian Forces Combat Camera, Master Corporal David Hardwick
