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Haitians tire of waiting, start own rebuilding
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-01-30 14:32
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti: Defying pleas to wait for Haiti's reconstruction, families lugged heavy bundles of wood and tin up steep hillsides Friday to do the unthinkable: build new homes on top of old ones devastated in the earthquake.
 Louis Saint-Jane rebuilds his home that collapsed in the Jan. 12 earthquake in the Canape Vert neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Friday, January 29, 2010. Defying pleas to wait for Haiti's reconstruction, families are building new homes on top of old ones devastated in the earthquake. [Agencies] |
Few tents have been supplied, rubble remains strewn in many streets, and signs begging for help in English — not Haitian Creole — dot nearly every street corner in Port-au-Prince.
It could take another month to get the 200,000 tents needed for Haiti's homeless, said Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue, the culture and communications minister. Haiti now has fewer than 5,000 donated tents.
In the concrete slum of Canape Vert, an area devastated by the quake, dozens of people were pooling their labor and getting on with rebuilding.
"I have 44 years' worth of memories in this house," said Noel Marie Jose, 44, whose family was reinforcing crumbling walls with tin and wood.
"I got married here. I met my husband here. My mother braided my hair there where these walls used to stand," Jose said. "Even if it's unsafe, I can't imagine leaving. Even if the government helps, it will come too late. This is how it is in Haiti."
Reconstruction, resettlement and land titles are all priorities of the government of President Rene Preval — but so far in name only. The government has been nearly paralyzed by the quake — its own infrastructure, including the National Palace, was destroyed — and so far it has been limited to appeals for foreign aid and meetings with foreign donors that have yet to produce detailed plans for the emergencies it confronts.
Step one is moving people from areas prone to more earthquakes and landslides into tent cities that have sanitation and security but have yet to be built. Preval has engaged in dozens of meetings with potential outside contractors to discuss debris removal, sanitation and other long-term needs. Albert Ramdin, assistant secretary of the Organization of American States, has offered help in creating a new Haitian land registry — a process that could take months if not years because countless government records were destroyed in the quake.
Haitians ardently defend their property rights. If a family has occupied land for more than 10 years, they typically have gained ownership rights even without a deed. For some families, small homes have been passed on through the generations. Few Haitians have insurance, and the loss of what few assets they have has crippled countless families.
