Thaindian News

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (BNO NEWS) – Concern for a “secondary disaster” in Haiti is rising, as hurricane season approaches, Word Vision said Tuesday.

World Vision, an international Christian relief agency, expressed concern as the upcoming hurricane season in Haiti could create a secondary disaster for Haitians. The agency is urging the Government of Haiti and the international community to include disaster risk reduction activities in its long-term rebuilding plans.

The agency is proposing a minimum of 10 percent of total humanitarian funding made available for disaster risk reduction interventions, which is a figure established by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and its partners, including World Vision, as a minimum goal.

“While we continue to focus on the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti, we must prepare ourselves for the possibility of another disaster as the hurricane season approaches,” said Jean-Claude Mukadi, World Vision’s relief response manager in Haiti. “While we can’t prevent disasters like earthquakes and floods, we must focus on preventing the effects of these disasters on those at risk in Haiti.”

Four strong hurricanes stuck Haiti two years ago, and left the country in a difficult struggle to recover. The country’s high level of poverty does not help the growing and complex threats from natural disasters.

World Vision reported that numerous studies have presented that the economic cost of investing in disaster preparedness and disaster risk reduction is far less than the cost of dealing with the aftermath, and, some estimate that for every dollar spent on risk reduction equals to four dollars saved.

“We know disaster risk reduction can save lives; we saw it work in Bangladesh after Cyclone Sidr struck in 2007. Sadly, that cyclone killed 3,400 people, but an equally-powerful cyclone there in 1991 killed more than 143,000 Bangladeshis,” said Melisa Bodenhamer, World Vision’s senior advisor on disaster risk reduction. “Today in that country, communities are more prepared in the event that another catastrophic event like that should occur. It is our hope that by implementing similar disaster risk reduction activities, Haiti will see the same success in the years to come.”

To help prepare many displaced families for this year’s hurricane season, World Vision has implemented cash-for-work programs in its camps in Port-au-Prince, paying men and women to build and maintain latrines and bathing facilities, dig trenches in the camps to help ease the effects of heavy rains, and reinforce the temporary shelters with new tarps and poles.

Other programs include risk-mapping, community contingency planning, and raising awareness of the disasters themselves, but the agency noted that the most vulnerable, emotionally and physically, are children. Risk reduction programs that include children have been especially successful, the agency said. By equipping children to protect themselves, community resilience is greatly enhanced over the long-term and vulnerability to environmental threats is significantly reduced.