Talk begins to turn to rebuilding Haiti - Summary

Washington - Images of Haiti's devastation prompted an upswing in discussion in the US Sunday about the way forward for a country beset by corruption, poverty and political turmoil. Even as rescue workers lifted concrete and sawed through barriers to pull out survivors in Port-au-Prince, which was destroyed by up to 70 per cent in many neighborhoods, policymakers are thinking ahead to the healing and rebuilding of the ravaged country.

The death toll is estimated at 50,000, and major efforts right now are focused on getting food and water to the survivors in Port-au- Prince's suffering population of 1.9 million.

But former US presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush, who are spearheading a fund-raising campaign, noted the importance of making sure that Haiti is rebuilt into a functioning country with a good government, rather than restoring what was there before.

Speaking on a Sunday talk show, Clinton noted it would not be a success "if all we do is get them back to the way they were the day before the earthquake."

He added he was optimistic: "I think they can do it."

Bush, who is making his first high profile public appearance since he left office a year ago, noted the importance for the Haitian government "to explain how in the long term the money will be spent. It needs to develop ... a reasonable strategy."

Clinton has been involved in Haiti through his private foundation, and emphasized the positive developments and new flow of foreign investments in Haiti since the last bout of political turmoil in 2004.

C Ross Anthony, the global health director for the Washington- based Rand Corporation, sees the destruction as an opportunity to get it right with the western hemisphere's poorest country.

"It's terrible to look at it this way, but out of crisis often comes real change," he told the Washington Post. "The people and the institutions take on the crisis and bring forth things they weren't able to do in the past."

The Haitian government has barely been a presence in the relief efforts. Its rescue infrastructure was barely existent before the quake, a number of ministers have been killed, and there's no visible presence of its own military. UN peacekeepers have been the main security force in the country since 2004, and their forces were decimated through death and injury in the quake.

Lieutenant General PK Keen, deputy commander of the US military's Southern Command, emphasized the importance of security to the humanitarian assistance efforts.

While conceding there have been isolated incidents of violence, Keen also said the "capacity to provide adequate security will be a challenge." He said however that paratroopers were being "warmly received" wherever they went in the rescue and assistance efforts.

"We are going to be here as long as we are needed," he told US broadcaster CNN.

Tuesday's earthquake in addition revealed the appalling structural weaknesses of its urban infrastructure. Slum shacks as well as tall government buildings and the presidential palace were reduced to rubble by the quake.

Clinton noted that one way to address the need for responsible urban planning would be to get donors together and "ask them to condition release of their funds based on construction meeting certain standards."

"I think the Haitian government will welcome that. They want to build a modern country," Clnton said.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was in Haiti on Saturday, insisted that "we are not just going to patch it together again but to think, 'What should this neighborhood look like, what should this street look like?'"

The US Agency for International Development late Saturday cited a death toll of 50,000 dead from Haiti's earthquake, but noted the difficulty in confirming the number amidst the disaster.

USAID said its figure came from the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC), which based its estimation on an assessment by one of the first UNDAC teams on the ground.

USAID also noted that its search and rescue teams, working alongside other international teams, had rescued 22 people from collapsed buildings as of week's end.

All told, USAID has sent 506 search and rescue experts to Haiti, ravaged by a massive earthquake on Tuesday that has affected about one-third of its population, or 3 million people.

USAID said that the US military has flown in three water treatment units that are delivering 300,000 liters of safe drinking water every day. Another water treatment plant was on its way.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/304263,talk-begins-to-turn-to-rebuilding-haiti--summary.html.