The interim President of Haiti, Boniface Alexandre, on Tuesday appealed to world leaders for aid as the death toll from the country’s second flooding disaster in four months reached more than 700.
Alexandre made his plea at the United Nations in New York after Tropical Storm Jeanne inundated many cities at the weekend and mudslides buried houses.
”In the face of this tragedy, I appeal urgently for the solidarity of the international community,” Alexandre said. The United States government pledged an immediate $60 000 in aid.
The worst damage was in the north-western coastal city of Gonaives, where at least 550 people died when a three-metre wall of water and mud destroyed large areas of the town. More than 100 other people died in the region.
On Tuesday night the disaster was blamed on deforestation, which has left communities vulnerable to flash floods.
”Deforestation is a huge factor in this disaster”, said Luis Clemens, Caribbean spokesperson for Oxfam, speaking from Mexico City.
”It means that you have mudslides and roads washed away and what would be a tropical storm elsewhere has hurricane effects in Haiti.”
The mountainous country which was once heavily forested now has less than 2% tree cover. This has has led to severe soil erosion which allows water to rush off the steep slopes.
Most trees have been cut down to make charcoal for cooking. A recent UN environmental report described Haiti as ”one of the most degraded countries in the world.”
On Tuesday night, UN peacekeeping forces joined local rescue efforts, helping to recover hundreds of bodies. ”There’s not one house in Gonaives that has not been affected,” said the interim prime minister, Gerard Latortue, touring flooded areas. He declared the city of 250 000 people a disaster area and also appealed for international aid.
”We expect to find dozens more bodies as the flood waters recede,” said Dieufort Deslorges, a spokesperson for the government’s civil protection agency. He said more than 100 000 people in Gonaives needed shelter, food or medical aid.
The first emergency supplies reached the city on Tuesday but the three Red Cross trucks carrying food and blankets were immediately besieged by people.
The tropical storm came four months after devastating flash floods along the southern border of Haiti and the neighbouring Dominican Republic killed at least 2 500 people.
Haiti’s poverty also contributed significantly to the disaster, said Oxfam. ”It means that people are extremely vulnerable. They have no significant capacity to respond to emergencies and there’s no civil defence system. The cities have no drains or any way of storing the floodwater,” said Clemens.
With soil in some areas eroded beyond repair, the government has been looking into relocating communities, particularly from flood-prone zones. After the floods in May, reforesting the country was declared a priority.
”Every time there’s a flood, it’s always the same victims,” Alexandre said in June. ”We need to find a better place for them, and if the appropriate land is privately owned, the government must expropriate it.”
The US promised aid to help build water catchment areas and to plant more trees, but restoring Haiti’s ecology is a massive task.
In the past 20 years, more than 60-million trees have been planted to try to avoid soil erosion and desertification, but an estimated 10-20-million are cut down each year for firewood and charcoal.
The foreign minister of the Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti, also called for international assistance to help relief efforts in his country, where at least 11 people died in the same storm. – Guardian Unlimited Â