Eight months after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, debris still litter the Caribbean nation. In the capital, Port-au-Prince, only about 2 percent of rubble has so far been cleared.
The massive Jan. 12 earthquake left about 33 million cubic yards of debris in Port-au-Prince.
There is no specific Haitian government official or agency declared in charge of rubble removal, The Associated Press reports. As such, foreign non-governmental organizations take on the task, but with little coordination and fragmented operations.
Moreover, heavy equipment have to be shipped in by sea, dump trucks have to navigate narrow and mountainous dirt roads, and the nation’s land registration system is flawed, AP notes.
“There’s not a master plan,” said Eric Overvest, country director for the United Nations Development Program. “After the earthquake, the first priority was clearing the roads. That was the easiest part.”
Meanwhile, the Inter-American Development Bank has launched the campaign called Haiti’s Colors of Hope to help mobilize cash donations and art supplies for quake-affected Haitian artists.
IDB will seek contributions from its staff, their families and former employees, as well as from individuals in the Washington region for Haitian earthquake victims during the campaign, which runs from Sept. 9 to Sept. 16.
The embassies of Argentina, Guatemala, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela in Washington, D.C., are also supporting the campaign.
