Moontown

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) — It could take decades for Haiti to recover from last month’s devastating earthquake, but the tragedy may provide the impoverished country a chance to rebuild “the right way,” a top UN official said on Monday.

“This is the moment for the Haitians to refound their republic,” said Edmond Mulet, acting head of the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti.

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa (R) speaks to acting Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General Edmond Mulet on arrival at the airport of Port-au-Prince for an overnight visit. AFP PHOTO

A former UN special representative to Haiti, Mulet flew into the poor Caribbean country soon after the Jan. 12 quake to assume command of the 9,000-strong UN police and military force in the earthquake-shattered state.

His predecessor was killed in the Haiti quake, one of the world’s worst natural disasters, as were other top commanders of the UN Stabilization Mission. Known by its French-language acronym MINUSTAH, the mission’s Port-of-Prince headquarters collapsed along with thousands of other buildings.

Mulet said it may never be known how many people died in the quake or the number of those who perished under what he described as “tons and tons and tons” of rubble.

But in a candid interview in his office in a makeshift UN compound, he said the world community and Haitians themselves had failed repeatedly to build strong institutions and foster development in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest state, which has a history of political turmoil and natural disasters.

Now, after the 7.0 magnitude quake that government officials estimate killed up to 200,000 people, he said international donors had to come up with more effective mid- and long-term strategies to help Haiti than in the past.

Humanitarian assistance is still the top priority in the near term. But just throwing billions of dollars in aid to the country, as has been done in the past 25 years, will not do the trick for Haiti over the long haul, the soft-spoken Guatemalan UN official said.

“We should do better,” said Mulet, saying job creation and robust development programs were needed to pull the country out of the misery that was endemic long before last month.

“The international community has been really very fickle here,” he added, saying the imminent creation of a special World Bank directorate for Haiti could help lay the foundation for many new projects.

“This is also an opportunity for the Haitians themselves to see all their own responsibilities and to be up to the task. They also have been part of the problem, it’s not only us but also them,” Mulet said.

“This shake-up … this earthquake will also make them think about their own responsibilities and to use this tragedy to rebuild Haiti the right way,” he said.

He declined to comment on speculation about a possible move to relocate the wrecked Haitian capital somewhere outside Port-au-Prince, away from dangerous geological fault lines. He said that would have to be a Haitian government decision.

He said it was also up to President Rene Preval, who Mulet said would return to the grounds of the heavily damaged National Palace to work out of temporary offices to be set up there later this week, to determine how and where to house all the Haitians made homeless by the quake.

Mulet said the poor living conditions in packed survivors’ camps and shanties that have cropped up across Port-au-Prince urgently needed to be addressed, as the onslaught of Haiti’s rainy season threatened to worsen a humanitarian crisis still far from under control.

He also acknowledged that the United Nations, which is in the process of adding 3,500 police, soldiers and a small contingent of Japanese and Korean engineers to its force in Haiti, had played a limited humanitarian role in the first few days after the earthquake struck.

“At the very beginning it was very difficult because all the headquarters was completely destroyed and all the leadership of the mission was killed,” he said.

“In this case we were victims, as the government was and as the Haitian population was. My first responsibility was really to put back the mission on its feet,” he said.

Overall, Mulet said the global response to Haiti’s disaster had been much quicker and more effective than in other recent cases, including the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 226,000 people in 13 countries just over five years ago.

But Haiti itself seemed to have been much harder hit than Indonesia, where the tsunami took its greatest toll.

“My impression is that neither the Haitians themselves nor the international community have fathomed the effects or consequences of the destruction that happened here, not only on human lives but also on infrastructure. And this is going to take, in my own opinion, decades.” (Caribnet)

Senator DeAllie warns that Grenada is headed down a disastrous road with spending on social programmes at more than $25 million.

“It is amazing the amount of money we spend in social programmes for such a small nation of people that has approximately 47,000 working and paying taxes,’’ said DeAllie. “If we say 12,000 of them are out of work, it means that 35,000 people are supporting social-cost programmes of upwards of $25 million.’’

The Senator said the situation suggests “something with our people and what we are doing.’’

For one thing, claimed DeAllie, “our people are not understanding that if we do not work and we do not change our attitude to work and productivity, we are on a road for disaster – total road for disaster.’’

DeAllie confessed that he is indeed bothered by “the kind of monies that are spent’’ on social support programmes.

“And we are asked more and more of our governments; asking them to give more and more, such as housing repair and land programmes and the list is endless. We have to check what we do.’’

DeAllie, in his contribution to the budget debate in the Upper House of Parliament, also said that government should consider abolishing personal income tax and adjusting corporate tax on businesses.

“When you consider that only 1,320 pay income tax, we probably should get rid of it,’’ he said. “We probably need to do cost-benefit of that. I see the revenue-intake from that is going to be $12 million or somewhere in that region. If it is making no sense to government, get rid of it or look to reduce the rate.’’

As for corporate income tax, it could rise to about 35 percent after the addition of stamp tax.

On top of that, said DeAllie, businesses are being asked to incur further costs in administering and collecting “in a timely and efficient manner’’ the Value Added Tax (VAT).

“I think we must be given some sort of relief as it relates to our taxes,’’ DeAllie pleaded. (Caribnet)

Senator Humphrey outlined some of the projects while making his contribution in the Upper House of Parliament to the 2010 budget debate.

The economic difficulties of Grenada must be seen not only in the context of the global crisis, but also viewed from the perspective of money squandered by the NNP regime, he said.

Humphrey said the NNP government of former Prime Minister Keith Mitchell lost millions of dollars in schemes such as the poultry project in St Mark, the Lagoon Road project of the Marketing and National Importing Board, and the Garden Group project.

“Then there’s the famous call centre – almost $24 million spent and absolutely nothing to show for it,’’ Senator Humphrey charged.

He said his own “conservative’’ estimate is that some $250 million was squandered on failed projects.

“You see the magnitude of this waste. Think about what this money could do for housing for poor people,’’ Senator Humphrey said. “Think about what this money could do for culture.

With about $6 million being spent on free school books for 26,000 students, “my math tells me that we could finance that program with all the money NNP wasted for the next 49.17 years,’’ added Sen. Humphrey.

The wasted money, he said, could also have been used to provide food “for all of the children currently in the school feeding program for 92.51 years,’’ and for 195,000 elderly persons who receive assistance under the Necessitous Grant program. Caribnet)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) — Haiti should be preparing for another major earthquake that could be triggered by the catastrophic one last month which killed up to 200,000 people and left the capital Port-au-Prince in ruins, experts say.

Teams of geophysicists, who have been tracking movements in the fault line that slashes across Haiti and into the Dominican Republic, came to the nation last week to measure changes in the Earth’s crust after the 7.0-magnitude quake on January 12.

Increased pressure on the fault after the quake could unleash another of the same size or bigger, although scientists acknowledge they have no way of knowing exactly when or where it will hit.

“Faults are always waiting for the right moment but if another earthquake gives them a little kick they go before their time,” said Eric Calais, a professor of geophysics from Purdue University in Indiana, who is leading the seismology project in Haiti.

Preliminary calculations by his group show the January 12 quake could be the “little kick” that sets off another temblor along the 186 mile fault where two regional tectonic plates have been scraping together for millions of years.

More than 50 aftershocks, including one measuring 5.9 magnitude, have shaken Port-au-Prince after last month’s quake. The US Geological Survey says the aftershock sequence will continue for months, “if not years”, and “damaging earthquakes will remain possible in the coming months”.

Calais was due to take his findings to a meeting on Monday with President Rene Preval and the head of the United Nations mission in Haiti, in which he would stress the urgent need to rebuild the city’s critical infrastructure safely and quickly.

Haiti’s government has announced plans to relocate up to half a million homeless quake victims — many now camped out in rubble-strewn streets — in temporary villages outside of Port-au-Prince. But some experts suggest the whole capital should be rebuilt away from the dangerous fault line.

Calais was part of a group of experts who warned Haitian officials in 2008 that there could be a 7.2 magnitude quake on the horizon.

But Haitian officials said there was not enough time or funds to shore up the impoverished Caribbean’s country’s shoddy construction or take precautions, and in last month’s quake, many buildings pancaked, their bricks crumbling to dust.

“It’s not too late. Now is the time to really get serious about this,” Calais said.

Over 200 years ago, when Haiti saw its last major earthquake, there were actually several temblors in a row, two in 1751 and another in 1770, Calais said.

In one destroyed neighborhood in the Haitian capital, where people now live in tents made of bed sheets and sticks, curious children watched the scientists set up specialized global positioning systems. The devices, placed at different points along the fault, will gather data over three days and compare it to information gathered over the past five years.

But for all the precise measurements, there is no such thing as an exact science of earthquake prediction.

Haiti’s national geological survey offices collapsed in the quake, killing some 30 people inside, including the institute’s director. This complicates future research in a country that has no seismic network, except for Calais’ GPS monitors.

“Scientists are blind when it comes to this earthquake … We rely on data that is coming from stations that are far away,” he said.

“It’s like if you go to your doctor and the only thing we can do is look at you with binoculars — so the diagnostic would be pretty poor.”

Aretha Welch awelch@trinidadexpress.com

Tuesday, February 2nd 2010

water warning: WASA chairman Dr Shafeek Sultan-Khan fields questions during yesterday’s news conference at the Authority’s Farm Road, St Joseph, headquarters. At right is acting CEO Dr Jim Lee Young. -Photo: CURTIS CHASE

THE WATER and Sewerage Authority (WASA) yesterday announced a national rationing plan in order to conserve the country’s dwindling water reserves, saying it was the only way to ensure customers have at least a supply they could survive on during what seems a tough dry season ahead.

Also, as of Wednesday morning, there will be nationwide restrictions on water use. Customers found breaking these restrictions, which fall under the Water and Sewerage Act, will face fines of at least $80 or $90 per offence.

Repeat offenders who leave sprinklers on excessively, religiously wash their cars with hoses, and refuse to take responsibility for their actions where water conservation is concerned will be further penalised, WASA corporate lawyer, Dion Abdool, said at a press conference at the company’s St Joseph headquarters yesterday.

The restrictions will be published in the press before they take full effect tomorrow, WASA officials said. The authority’s police will be on patrol once the restrictions are in effect.

WASA officials said given the low rainfall levels of last year, and further dry conditions this year, water will be redistributed from areas with regular supplies to those with irregular supplies.

’There will be a redistribution of water,’ WASA CEO Dr Jim Lee Young said.

We started with a dry wet season … the levels in our reservoir are lower than they should be for this time of year. And we still have to enter the harshest part of the dry season.’

He said total rainfall for January was just over 30 mm, more than 40 mm less than the Meteorological Office had previously predicted. He explained that ’certain areas of Trinidad are blessed with water’.

’We will start moving water from those areas, for example the north-west part of Trinidad, and sending it to areas with less,’ he said.

He said water from areas like the Diego Martin and Tucker Valley area will be moved eastwards. Lee Young said this would then displace water from the Caroni area and the displaced water will run further into WASA’s system and be fed to other areas within the network.

The CEO said while WASA has its job to do, citizens also had to do their part in conserving water for everyone in the country by fixing things like leaking pipes and rotting tank floats.

’We are now asking our customers to respond,’ he said.

Company chairman, Shafeek Sultan-Khan, also said customers could soon expect to get WASA meters. ’We are going into universal metering,’ he said.

While Sultan-Khan said WASA had its own share of fixing to do, he said once people had meters on their homes they would be more willing to fix leaks quickly and save water more efficiently. (Trinidad Express)