Haiti - IOM Haiti this week began work on a USD 1 million project funded by the Haitian Government through the Economic and Social Assistance Fund (FAES). The scheme will rehabilitate five evacuation shelters in high-risk areas of the country to provide safe haven to vulnerable populations in case of hurricanes or other natural disasters.

The physical infrastructure work will be complemented with training and institutional capacity reinforcement in mass evacuation and shelter management.

For the last ten years, IOM has provided support to the Haitian Civil Protection (DPC) and other government offices to strengthen their emergency preparedness and response capacity, including the continued development of the mass evacuation system. The system was successfully tested during the 2012 hurricane season when vulnerable populations were safely evacuated during Tropical Storm Isaac in August and Hurricane Sandy in October.

Haiti faces extreme environmental vulnerability and has, in the past, been victim to numerous natural disasters. This vulnerability is further compounded by the fact that more than 270,000 internally displaced Haitians are still living in 352 camps, of which about 100 remain at particular risk of flooding, landslides or other environmental challenges.

“As it is common in regions prone to flooding and tropical cyclones, and as a result of Haiti’s deforestation and environmental vulnerability as well as the increasing frequency and intensity of storms caused by climate change, continued development of Haiti’s evacuation system remains extremely important. We need to continue developing this system to better protect vulnerable populations in case of natural disasters,” explains IOM Haiti Emergency Preparedness and Response focal point Brad Mellicker.

The one year project will start with the identification of five suitable spaces to either build or rehabilitate as evacuation shelters. They will be located in strategically selected areas of the country that are particularly prone to flooding and other deadly damage caused by tropical storms.

Over the past few years, IOM has provided support to the government in the construction or rehabilitation of more than 30 evacuation shelters, the drafting of the first ever Haiti-specific policy on evacuation shelters, structural evaluations of potential shelters in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, a national inventory of shelters and operational support for evacuations.

For more information please contact

Brad Mellicker
IOM Haiti
Tel: +509 3702 7593
Email: bmellicker@iom.int

or

Ilaria Lanzoni
Tel: +509 3702 5066
Email: ilanzoni@iom.int