The United Nations on Tuesday expressed concern over shortage of funds for humanitarian services in Haiti, pointing out that inadequate funding had resulted in reduced services at relief camps for those displaced by the 2010 earthquake.
The U.N. and the government in Haiti have indicated that further funds are necessary to help thousands of Haitians affected by the 2010 earthquake and the subsequent cholera epidemic, as well as in preparing for the upcoming hurricane season.
According to a statement issued on behalf of Nigel Fisher, U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Haiti, the humanitarian community has so far received only 8.5 percent of the $231 million it sought for relief operations in Haiti this year. The statement also noted that donor nations had provided only about 55 percent of the $382 million sought last year for humanitarian activities in the Caribbean island nation.
"Underfunding threatens to stunt growing relocation initiatives to safe housing that already benefited hundreds of thousands. It threatens to reverse gains achieved in the fight against cholera through the promotion of sanitary and hygiene practices. It threatens the very existence of hundreds of thousands of [internally displaced persons] still living in camps," Fisher said.
The funding shortfall has prompted the U.N.-managed Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), a fund established to enable more timely and reliable humanitarian assistance to underfunded crises, to allocate $8 million to humanitarian agencies in Haiti for addressing urgent needs. But relief agencies have already said that the CERF funding will not be sufficient to meet the many humanitarian challenges this year.
The world body is now hoping to receive $53.9 million from donor nations in the next three months, adding that those funds would be used for preparing for the forthcoming rainy season as well as for providing potable water and hygiene services in camps, flood protection, cholera response and protection for those who are exposed to sexual abuse and other forms of violence.
Haiti is still struggling to recover from the devastating January 2010 earthquake that killed 217,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless. Shortly thereafter, the country was hit by a cholera outbreak which claimed more than 7,000 lives since October 2010 and made some 500,000 others sick.
Although the number of people living in the camps set up for the displaced population has declined dramatically in recent months, almost half a million people still live in such settlements. Rest of the residents of such camps remain exposed to cholera and the risk of flooding, especially during the May-November hurricane season.
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