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Haiti as a Multi-hazardous Environment - Coggle Diagram
Haiti as a Multi-hazardous Environment
Humanitarian Disaster
Poorest country in the western hemisphere
Buildings constructed out of tin and cheap concrete with many slums perched on steep, bare hillsides which are prone to landslides
Barely recovered from flash floods, hurricanes and mudslides in the last few years
1 in 3 are short of food
Thousands made homeless after hurricanes
Deadly Decades
1963
- Hurricane Flora kills 8,000 Haitians
1986
- Duvalier dictatorship falls, destabilizing the country
1998
- Hurricane Gordon causes mudslides that kill almost 1,000 residents
2004
- Flooding from Hurricane Jeanne leads to 3,000 deaths / Military coup drives out former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide
2008
- Hurricanes Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike strike, leaving 1,100 people dead or missing and causing $1 billion worth of damage / Food riots in Port-au-Prince / School building collapses in Petionville, killing nearly 100
Factors of Vulnerability
Slavery
Haiti became independent from France in 1804. France demanded 90 million gold francs which would take 122 years to pay off
Dictatorship
From 1957-86 Haiti was ruled by the Duvalier regime. They have taken $504,000,000 from public monies and it has not been paid back. The countries creditors insisted the Haitians honored the debts incurred by the Duvalier to the IMF and World Bank.
Climate
Wealthy countries that have failed to address the crisis owe a debt to developing countries that have done little to cause the crisis but are disproportionately facing its effects
Deforestation
Only 1.5% of Haiti is still forested compared to 60% in 1923. The Dominican Republic is still 28% forested.
Without trees moderate rain brings soil and rock onto its towns as there is nothing to hold the soil together for agriculture
Haiti is in danger of losing what little trees it has left, as many as 30 million a year to the demand for the charcoal used as cooking fuel
Solutions
A system of parallel terracing coupled with bamboo could help stop the mountain slides slipping into the cities
Develop new sources of fuel instead of charcoal using sugar cane to make combustible briquettes
Aid agencies experiment with planting trees and shrubs (Christian Aid - Eucalyptus, UN's Environmental Development Arms - Aloe, Elephant grass) to help halt natural disasters
Hurricane History
Bad hurricane history began in the mid1980s when deforestation began
In 2004 and 1994, the early stages of Jeanne and Gordon caused thousands of deaths (Jeanne killed over 3,000 due to torrential rainfall)
In 2015, the remnants of Erika caused mudslides and one death
In 2010, Tomas caused mudslides, flooding and 35 deaths without landfall
In 2008, Tropical storm Fay and Hurricanes Gustav, Hanna and Ike caused widespread flooding and mudslides. Overall 793 people died with another 300 missing. Ike caused 74 deaths and wiped out food supplies, shelter and transportation networks
Disaster Risk Management and Reconstruction Project (World Bank, 2012-2020)
Response to 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew in 2016
Focused on supporting Haiti to improve its disaster response capacity and enhance the resilience of critical transport infrastructure
Improve risk assessment capacity by generating key risk data using earth observation, remote sensing technology and hydrological risk models
Strengthened citizen engagement through early warnings, emergency evacuation, and emergency shelter management
Utilized hydrological models and multi-hazard maps to make innovative, cost-efficient engineering solutions for post-disaster reconstruction and to build amore resilient road network
Results
Training in disaster management was delivered to 127 ministry officials and 1520 beneficiaries
7 emergency shelters were rehabilitated in rural areas
Improved and resilient investment on the road network benefited 150,000 people