Haiti's Long Path to Recovery

Bill Canny, Catholic Relief Services' Haiti country representative, recently discussed conditions in Haiti five months after four major storms lashed the country.

Catholic Relief Services:

Since we're primarily concerned about meeting greatest needs, are there parts of Haiti that are relatively stable and secure—or is all of Haiti just a degree or two better off than Gonaives?

Local laborers work to remove a mound of mud from a center in Gonaives, Haiti. Photo by David Snyder for CRS

Bill Canny:

While there is an acute need in Gonaives, the work that needs to be done is by no means contained to this one part of the country. A quarter of the daily caloric need is lacking for everyone in Haiti. There is also a gas shortage that is causing prices to go up and exacerbating already existing problems.

CRS:

Is all of Haiti as vulnerable to inundation of mud as was Gonaives?

Canny:

Due to the landscape and the severe deforestation in the area, the mud in Gonaives was a special case. There was no drainage, no place for the water to flow through and out of the city, so it all just stagnated within the city itself. Certainly parts of the country are subject to flooding, but not with the same mud phenomenon to which Gonaives was subjected.

Five months after the storms, Gonaives is still mired in mud. Many of the schools and houses have been cleaned out and people are now beginning to repair the structures themselves. Unfortunately, when the mud was removed it was piled up in the streets. In the last phase of our work we are going to start clearing the streets of the accumulated mud and move it outside of the city.

CRS:

What are Haiti's immediate and most pressing needs?

Canny:

One pressing problem is the caloric undernourishment in Haiti. There's a consensus that Haiti has to grow its own food. The global food crisis has shown that Haiti's dependence on imports for 60 percent of its food is not very tenable. There needs to be more investment on the agricultural production side.

We also need to continue to build roads. We can't focus only on increasing production; the infrastructure needs to be built up so we can get those new products to the market. Over the last six years a number of roads have been built and we have seen progress in that particular area. CRS has contributed in some small way to these improvements through our cash-for-work projects in which we've helped to build secondary roads that link smaller communities to the larger network.

CRS:

What are Haiti's most pressing long-term needs?

Canny:

Only 1 to 2.5 percent of the country is covered in vegetation. Haiti really needs to work slowly but surely toward a long-term solution. The new government has come up with plans to increase vegetation to 5 percent by 2012. If the chronic deforestation is not remedied, there will be an ongoing degradation of topsoil and we'll see even more mudslides.

A volunteer in Haiti helps to sort through CRS food ration kits to be distributed that day. Each kit contains enough food for a family of five for 15 days. Photo by David Snyder for CRS

Additionally, we'll have a growing population with fewer locally produced goods dependent on food prices which fluctuate and are not under the control of the Haitian consumers.

CRS:

Are there plans in place to address those needs?

Canny:

We've found ways to incorporate these needs into our overall programming. CRS is helping communities deal with degradation in the highlands by getting involved in ravine and gully construction. This will help to successfully divert water and prevent it from flowing down too quickly, destroying plants, animals and shelters as happened in the low-lying areas during last season's storms.

CRS is working with farmers to increase their crop yield, conserve soil and use more productive seeds. We're also helping them to plant small trees and teaching cropping techniques so that the soil isn't depleted so quickly.

CRS:

What is needed to diminish the widespread and devastating damage caused by hurricanes, tropical storms, or in some parts, even mere rainfall?

Canny:

Basically, one of the things that needs to be done is to reforest the land, especially in the mountains where we would have fewer onslaughts of fast-moving water if there were trees and shrubs in place to help disrupt the flow.

CRS:

Do you have the sense that you are fighting time in Haiti—that much needs to be done before the next hurricane season?

Canny:

Yes, definitely. We just hope that we can help some villages and some people be better prepared and get programs in place that will help mitigate some of the problems. We are doing some emergency preparations: pre-positioning of stock, meeting with our Caritas partners, evaluating what we accomplished this year, and will even simulate an emergency response over the summer in preparation for next season.

These girls stand amid the few items their families were able to salvage from the floodwaters that inundated the city of Gonaives when Hurricane Ike hit Haiti. Photo by David Snyder for CRS

CRS:

How much of what is deeply needed now depends on funding we do not yet have?

Canny:

As usual there is little funding for rehabilitation and recovery, for replenishment of livestock, or for trying to get some trees and vegetation planted. Money pours in after the initial devastation but dries up as time passes. We could certainly use more funds to help people recover and help prepare for the next season's storms.

There is some evidence that our brains, our capacity to actually focus on a subject, have been shortened by the advent of television. The world tends to be focused on the next problem or issue or catastrophe or crisis. Places like Haiti are forgotten when the next disaster strikes in the world. Even after what happened in September, where hundreds of people died. Now with the economic crisis in the United States, people are focused on other things. That is quite normal. Our outlook is not rosy. We just have to do what we can. That's our mission: to do whatever we can to assist farmers and communities to recover, and assist communities to prepare.

CRS:

We rightly talk a lot about the manifold troubles Haiti faces. Can you also talk about some good things? Do you like Haiti? Why?

Canny:

We do have our second, ongoing democracy. We have another set of senatorial elections in April and that is a positive move in Haiti. The seeds of democracy have apparently been pretty well planted. We are starting to see parliamentary debates on issues. That is a hopeful sign.

I think that there is also a consensus in the population and the government that more investment needs to be made in agriculture and that is a positive turn for Haiti. There's quite a dependence on imported rice from the United States, and people are recognizing that they have to lower their dependence on imports.

CRS:

What are the characteristics of the CRS Haiti team that you admire and enjoy?

Canny:

I think there is a very dedicated group of people willing to work long hours. It's an experienced team that works together with a healthy degree of humility. There's a good combination of local and international staff which creates a very healthy and pleasant working environment. I think that the Haitians that work for us have a fundamental desire to aid and help their countrymen.