UN: Haiti airport improving, handling 150 planes a day

Geneva - Some 150 planes were landing daily at Port-au- Prince airport, the United Nations said Thursday, but warned the situation remains a "challenge."The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) noted "heavy congestion at the Port-au-Prince airport" and "finding free slots for large aircraft is still a challenge."

The planes were bringing in relief in various forms, including and food aid and medicine for survivors of the January 12 earthquake.

Because of price hikes and reported food shortages, the government of Haiti has asked the UN to conduct food distributions across the poor nation, even in areas not directly hit by the quake, which official now estimate left at least 75,000 people dead.

Half of all structures in Port-au-Prince are believed to have collapsed and a million people are estimated to be homeless.

Haiti's rainy season will start in April, and the government was pushing the UN and other aid agencies to find solutions to the lack of shelter before then, OCHA said.

Meanwhile, funding needs for the UN's humanitarian relief effort were almost a third met, after it requested some 575 million dollars for Haiti's emergency relief efforts and longer term recovery.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/304974,un-haiti-airport-improving-handling-150-planes-a-day.html.