Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Port au Prince (Agenzia Fides) – A year on after the repercussions of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January, 2010 continue to be felt especially in rural areas, aggravated by the running epidemic of cholera and by flooding and mudslides caused by Hurricane Tomas, which struck the agricultural sector particularly hard. The epidemic of cholera which broke out in the rice-growing region in the north-west of the island and the flooding in November caused by Tomas, which damaged agricultural infrastructure and over 78,000 hectares of crops have further exacerbated the already disastrous situation for poor rural households. The hurricane, with subsequent flooding, caused the spread of the epidemic in these areas, exactly where many displaced people had sought refuge.
According to the latest information sent to Fides by Father Antonio Menegon, director of the Camillian mission to Haiti, even more concerning a year after the earthquake, is the imminent voting for candidates in the political elections, with the feared violence, the blocked roads, the inability to supply food or medicine; the situation of the cholera epidemic which luckily seems to have taken minimum victims, even if there continues to be dead and infected; the reconstruction that is still to come, with its relative block of grand international aid and thus the inability to commence true reconstruction in the city of Port-au-Prince. “With regards to our activities,” said Father Antonio to Fides, “we continue to have hospitals full of the sick and traumatised from the earthquake and, in a separate, reserved area we have those infected with cholera. Luckily we have had only five or six die, the other patients recovered. All the facilities have been renovated, the buildings of the operating block, the doubling of this hospital and the one in Jérémie are finally commencing, although this did not stop work on the existing structures for both the earthquake victims and for those sick with cholera.” (AP) (11/1/2011 Agenzia Fides)
