Families still living in tents and makeshift accommodation, Many families on the island of Haiti are still subjected to living in atrocious conditions despite prime minister Laurent Lamothe claiming headway following the devastating earthquake four years ago, With senior officials at his side PM Lamothe delivered a progress report on the eve of the anniversary, "i think ( the rebuilding effort ) has gone very well, enormously well, considering the enormous challenges and the enormous lack of resources that we had when we started" Lamothe told The Associated Press following his talk. Many foreign governments and humanitarian groups promised billions in aid much of which has not materialised mainly because of infighting and government corruption but also in the global climate many are unwilling to give more. Looking forward to new building projects there are around 10,000 groups that are non registered and no one seems to know what schedules they have and whether many of these groups are duplicated. Lamothe said his government has drafted legislation to require non-government groups to register and report their spending plans. Four years later after the 7.0 magnitude quake that toppled around 190,000 buildings and killed about 300,000 people, no one knows the exact figure, construction practices in the caribbean country have improved overall, with better materials being used for larger projects. A building code now exists and many big, well funded projects including more than a dozen hotels, supermarkets and schools are being built to international seismic standards. But construction of smaller commercial buildings and homes is more haphazard, in large part because most people in the impoverished nation dont have the money to do things by the book. As much as 90 percent of Haiti’s construction is done without an architect or engineer, and much of it on unstable soil, according to a study last year by the Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering. “Seismic hazards maps are now available for the design of new buildings,” it said. “Unfortunately, few engineers in Haiti are very familiar with seismic design principles and dynamics of structures.” Neighbourhoods in the capital of 3million are filled with precariously rebuilt one- and two-story homes no more secure than the ones they replaced. Of the families that were placed in new homes many were afforded free rent for a year but once the year was gone with little money many returned to the tents and makeshift buildings, there are an estimated 200,000 people living in slums. Some 150,000 earthquake victims still live in about 300 camps and another 50,000 live in the new sprawling slums Canaan, Onaville and Jerusalem. Half of the camps have no sanitation services and only 8% are supplied with water, according to an October 2013 report from the UCLBP and the Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM)/ Haiti is a fragile, largely forgotten country. It’s possible that some natural or man-made crisis this year could push it back into the headlines. But sustained attention, with the kind of support from outside that Haiti still needs to rebuild and become more self-sufficient, is mostly gone.
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