The population of Haiti is still acutely affected by the January 2010 earthquake, with 11.3 million people homeless six months on, but a badly organised reconstruction effort is endangering the chances of improving their lives in the near future, a group of MEPs reported after a visit to Port-au-Prince.

“There is basically no leadership from the local authorities at all,” said Michèle Striffler (EPP, France), first vice-chair of the Committee on Development (DEVE), on 14 July, shortly after her return from Haiti. “The government essentially has no capacity to manage the reconstruction process,” she added.

The 7.0 magnitude earthquake killed 222,000 people, leaving the already poor nation without the manpower or expertise, let alone the building infrastructure, to function even on a rudimentary basis without considerable external support. The authorities were affected in the same way as the general population, leaving ministries without ministers or civil service staff, police stations without officers and schools without teachers. Among the survivors, many had to leave their jobs to care for injured or homeless relatives. In addition to pledging €1.2 billion of the €2.8 billion overall target for humanitarian aid at the international Haiti donors’ conference in New York, on 31 March, the EU’s support has included sending 800 experts, including a specialised European Commission cell assisting the Haitian government’s efforts to rebuild the state structure.

Striffler reported that not only has Haiti’s state still not been rebuilt to a functional level, but that “the reconstruction is on the point of death”. While acknowledging the difficulty of responding to such a severe natural disaster in a country that already had serious economic and social problems, she said the fact remained that new efforts needed to be made “to avoid a catastrophe”.

The storm season is underway, Striffler noted, which makes the people still living in tents particularly vulnerable to the direct effects of the bad weather, but also to the risks of ill health that come with worsening sanitary conditions. She noted that many of the camps were makeshift tent cities that sprang up in the first days after the quake hit. In Port-au-Prince, almost 1,000 of these provide the only shelter for many residents.

The Commission and EU member states initially provided over €300 million of ‘fast-track humanitarian aid’ for Haiti in the immediate aftermath of the quake. The EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism was activated to coordinate member states’ civil protection efforts, including search and rescue teams. A further €100 million was allocated to state building efforts to assist the Haitian government and a package of €200 million was announced for longer term reconstruction and rehabilitation. The UN conference pledge brought the total to €1.3 billion. The EU and the UN currently estimate the full bill for Haiti’s reconstruction at €10 billion.