Haiti struggling to recover from the killer earthquake

When the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere suffers a natural disaster the likes of which have rarely been seen, recovery must be a long-term proposition. Thus the question: Is it fair to judge the progress that has been made — or not made — in Haiti after only five years?

We use the word only because of the extent of the devastation visited upon the Caribbean island on Jan. 12, 2010, by the magnitude 7.0 earthquake is still mind-boggling. More than 300,000 Haitians were killed, millions were left homeless, and the economy, such as it was, collapsed. The crisis triggered a worldwide fund-raising effort, led by former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

More than $12.4 billion in humanitarian and development aid and debt relief was pledged by more than 50 countries and international agencies, with at least 80 percent of that disbursed, according to the United Nations.

The U.S., the largest individual donor, provided $1.3 billion in humanitarian aid and committed an additional $2.7 billion for longer-term reconstruction and development, nearly two-thirds of which has been disbursed. American aid has been channeled toward rebuilding the infrastructure and economy, improving health care and law enforcement. It included developing an industrial park in northern Haiti as part of a strategy to encourage development outside Port-au-Prince.

The industrial park is a point of contention for ActionAid USA, which notes that the $170 million project has been a failure because only 4,200 jobs have been created (out of the 65,000 projected), and workers are being paid minimum wage. ActionAid also points out that the industrial park was built on prime agricultural land in Northern Haiti, far outside the disaster zone.

“A total of 366 families and 720 agricultural workers lost their land and livelihoods with only a few days’ notice to make way for the park,” the international nongovernmental organization said in a release.

But the Associated Press, which has been monitoring the situation in Haiti since the earthquake, offers a more positive picture, saying that new housing settlements have been established. The AP reported this week that many Haitians say their lives are better today than they were before the devastation.

“The disaster prompted a huge influx of international assistance, with governments and aid groups arriving to offer both immediate help and long-term development. One of the worst natural disasters of modern times, the quake killed an estimated 300,000 people, damaged or destroyed more than 300,000 buildings in densely packed Port-au-Prince and largely obliterated the government, toppling nearly all ministry buildings. Prisons and police stations crumbled into ruins,” the AP reported. “Officials repeatedly said they would be ‘building back better,’ and in many ways they have made progress toward that goal.”

Political situation

Other reports also make the point that rebuilding is taking place, even while the political situation in the capital, Port-au-Prince, is tenuous at best.

But non-governmental organizations such as ActionAid have a point when they argue that the commitment and expenditure of public dollars demand a high level of transparency and accountability. Indeed, there have been complaints that American-aid dollars have been squandered or have simply vanished.

At the very least, the Obama administration should use the five-year anniversary of the earthquake to demand a full accounting of the expenditures and to show the American people what the hundreds of millions of dollars have bought in Haiti.

That said, we firmly believe the recovery effort must continue. The people of Haiti deserve the international community’s help until their lives return to some state of normalcy.