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Haiti still faces disaster threat – President Martelly

Mar 29, 2013 News

 – but efforts being made to improve its standing

Although buildings codes are now in place, Haiti still remains under immense threat should another earthquake strike. At least this is according to the island’s President Michel Joseph Martelly, who in responding to a question on disaster preparedness of the Caribbean territory revealed that the impact could be just as dire as occurred in 2010.
President Martelly was at the time addressing a press conference at the Turkeyen, Caricom Secretariat recently, at which time he disclosed “in a year and a half, let’s say two, we have done as much as we could do, but to be honest with you, the hundreds of thousands of homes that were built before the earthquake that were not destroyed by the earthquake and were built without respecting any code, since we didn’t have one, if we have another major earthquake today… don’t get me wrong although I have said that we have moved forward, we will be in a very strained situation.”
However, he is optimistic that having lived through such a catastrophe, the people of Haiti are in fact more prepared to deal with such an occurrence “but to tell you that today we are fully prepared to survive another catastrophe of that magnitude it would be a lie.”
The President revealed that subsequent to the disaster, in addition to institution of building codes which is a set of rules that specify the minimum acceptable level of safety for construction, Haiti has also sought to reinforce its Civil Protection Unit. He disclosed too that efforts were made to train many health relief workers.
President Martelly, who was elected President in 2011, assumed the chairmanship of Caricom in January last. His tenure as Chairman will continue until June 2013. He disclosed that since the catastrophic earthquake, which reportedly had a 7.0 magnitude with an estimated 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater, numerous measures have been put in place.
More than 200,000 were reportedly killed and numerous buildings including residences and commercial buildings collapsed.
“I would say right after the earthquake the world focused on Haiti’s situation and because it was a major catastrophe nothing was organised. As Haitians we were not ready for such a catastrophe…we never lived it before.” In fact he disclosed that the territory’s construction code, or the lack thereof, did not help the situation in any way.
However, President Martelly is currently on a mission to ensure that his country has a deeper involvement in Caricom, but he has however warned against the expectations of things happening quickly.
“It’s not like you push a button and something happens,” he said, adding that the relationship is being built through discussions, getting to know people and nurturing ties.
He pointed to his belief that Haiti was once “present but absent”, but pointed out that it is today “more present, more involved” in the Community.
“There is a lot that we are doing at the Regional level that can be supportive of our Member States. We must tell our people and officials about this so they can appreciate our Caricom more, not only the good work being done by the Caricom Secretariat, but also by our Institutions and Agencies,” President Martelly stressed.
As part of a concentrated programme to help Haiti participate more fully in the integration movement, a team from the Caricom Secretariat, headed by Secretary General Irwin LaRocque is set to visit Haiti for a full and comprehensive briefing on the activities of Caricom, and how this important work can directly assist Haiti.

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