The UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has allocated USD 1
million from its "underfunded emergency" reserve to lifesaving IOM
water, sanitation and hygiene projects to combat waterborne
diseases at the start of Haiti's wet season.

Nearly half a million very poor Haitians still live in the
sprawling tent camps where they fled immediately after the
earthquake two years ago. Public health conditions are typically
dire and the onset of the rains brings with it the spread of
preventable, waterborne diseases, including cholera.

The exceptional UN grant is in response to a major shortfall in
funding this year for water, sanitation and hygiene projects
targeting Haiti's desperately poor and vulnerable January 2010
earthquake victims.

"The lack of financial resources at the disposal of the
humanitarian community has been curtailing its ability to fully
provide frontline services to the most vulnerable population
affected by a series of shocks, including the 12 January 2010
earthquake, the cholera epidemic and food insecurity," says
Philippe Verstraeten, Head of the Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Haiti.

The new funding will help IOM to deliver basic public health
services to vulnerable people in some 60 camps in and around
Port-au-Prince. A minimal service will also be maintained at the
Champ de Mars camp in front of the National Palace, where IOM is
supporting the Government of Haiti's relocation strategy for
internally displaced families.

The money will support camp water committees responsible for
ensuring the availability of potable water and provision of oral
rehydration solution in the event of a cholera outbreak. It will
also pay for latrine maintenance and repairs to prevent
contamination of the water supply.

The programme will also promote lifesaving hygiene and behaviour
change among some 60,000 camp residents to prevent a resurgence of
cholera. Haitians who previously worked for IOM on a voluntary
basis will be re-trained and deployed to camps with a history of
cholera cases to work in "Community Action Groups" to identify and
respond to any outbreak.

Haiti's first cholera outbreak began in October 2010, eight
months after the earthquake. It has resulted in close to half a
million cases nationwide and around 7,000 deaths.

For more information please contact:

Leonard Doyle

IOM Haiti

Tel: +509 3702 5066

E-mail: "mailto:ldoyle@iom.int">ldoyle@iom.int

or

Nicole Klaesener

E-mail: "mailto:nklaesener@iom.int">nklaesener@iom.int