Day of national mourning in Haiti one month after earthquake - Summary

Washington - Tens of thousands of survivors gathered in the Haitian capital Friday to pray on a national day of mourning, one month after an earthquake killed an estimated 230,000 people. The massive memorial took place in front of the shattered National Palace, the area around which has become a camp for thousands of Haitians who lost everything in the magnitude-7 earthquake on January 12.

A prayer service was led by Roman Catholic and Protestant clerics, who were joined by voodoo priests, outside the palace. Mourners looked up to the sky, waved their arms in the air, cried, sang, prayed and even danced, CNN reported.

Many of them were unable to give their family and friends dignified burials, as several thousand bodies were dumped in mass graves shortly after the earthquake. Haiti President Rene Preval has said that 170,000 victims were buried in common graves, the Washington Post reported.

"As the people of Haiti observe a national day of mourning to remember those lost in the catastrophic earthquake one month ago, the United States continues to stand with our Haitian friends as they recover and rebuild," the White House said in a statement.

"Amidst unimaginable suffering, the people of Haiti have inspired the world with their faith, strength of spirit and determination to rebuild," it said.

While bottlenecks slowing the delivery of relief supplies are decreasing, aid agencies have expressed concerns about the health of the estimated 1 million homeless forced to live in precarious shelters, with almost no sanitation and few sources of uncontaminated water.

Humanitarian aid agency Oxfam said Friday there was "still a mountain to climb" in Haiti to prevent a deterioration of public health. "We now need a surge in effort to improve sanitation facilities for people in Haiti," said the group's chief in Haiti, Marcel Stoessel.

"Let us not kid ourselves that this is going to be easy, it requires a Herculean humanitarian effort from all quarters."

The White House also warned that the situation in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, remains dire. The infrastructure that was destroyed in the 35 seconds that the earthquake lasted, will take years to rebuild.

"The United States will support our Haitian partners as they transition from emergency assistance to recovery and long-term reconstruction," the statement said.

The United Nations has said that the impending rainy season will compound Haiti's problems, adding that relief efforts should be intensified to help more of the estimated 3 million people in need of assistance.

While the rainy season doesn't begin until April, a downpour on Thursday demonstrated the troubles that lay ahead. Most of the survivors live in shelters made of worn-out strips of cloth, scraps of wood, cardboard and a few plastic sheets, leaving them exposed to the elements.

Oxfam said there was an urgent need to dig more ditches around these shelters to facilitate drainage during the rains, which could also trigger land slides.

"The rainy season has started. There is more and more misery," said Dr Louise Ivers, clinical director of Partners in Health (PIH), which has been working in Haiti for more than two decades. PIH said the early start of the rainy season brings new urgency to efforts to get more tents and temporary housing structures into Haiti.

Meanwhile, a high-level UN meeting on Haitian food security Friday heard of an "alarming" lack of international donor response to help the Caribbean nation's agricultural production.

Convened by Haitian Agriculture Minister Joanas Gue, the meeting in Rome was hosted by the World Food Program (WFP).

"At a time when Haiti is facing a major food crisis we are alarmed at the lack of support to the agricultural component of the United Nation's flash appeal," Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General Jacques Diouf said.

The 575-million-dollar appeal called for 23 million dollars for Haiti's immediate agricultural needs. The situation has been exacerbated by the influx to rural areas of tens of thousands of refugees who fled Port-au-Prince and other urban areas in the aftermath of the earthquake.

"But only 8 per cent of this sum has so far been financed," Diouf said.

"Right now, the immediate priority is to support the spring farm (planting) season which starts in March and represents more than 60 per cent of national food production," Diouf added.

The food situation in Haiti was already fragile before the earthquake, with the country highly dependent on food imports.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/308979,day-of-national-mourning-in-haiti-one-month-after-earthquake.html.