International aid agencies have warned that Haiti settlement camps are at major risk now the hurricane season has started.

The hurricane season has now started and international aid agencies are warning that Haiti camps are vulnerable to a second major disaster should a hurricane hit the stricken area.

Oxfam and World Vision are just two of the charities to have issued the warning. In 2008, Haiti was hit by four severe hurricanes, which affected 800,000 people and caused $1 billion in damage.

Following the earthquake in January this year, which claimed the lives of around 230,000 and displaced approximately one million people, the country is now even more vulnerable should another natural disaster hit.

The camps – Oxfam estimates there are more than 1,000 spontaneous settlement sites in greater Port-au-Prince alone – that are currently housing the homeless are vulnerable to landslides, flooding, fire, and epidemics due to hurricanes. Issues such as overcrowding, little natural drainage, and weak land structure all serve to exacerbate these potential disasters.

Jean-Claude Mukadi, World Vision’s Relief Response Manager in Haiti, said: “While we continue to focus on the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti, we must prepare ourselves for the possibility of another disaster as the hurricane season approaches. While we can’t prevent disasters like earthquakes and floods, we must focus on preventing the effects of these disasters on those at risk in Haiti.”

Both organisations are calling on the Haitian Government to issue public information campaigns to alert people to the dangers and to offer advice on what to do should the situation arise. World Vision has also given paid work to some of the people within the camps, in which they have built latrines for better sanitation and dug trenches to help cope with drainage issues.

Francis Lacasse, Country Director for Oxfam in Haiti, urged the Haitian government to tell people what to do if a weather emergency occurs: “We are responding with utmost speed to the findings of this survey, to prevent and mitigate threats in camps where we work. But people in these camps must have information about how to prepare for and respond to storms.
“The Government of Haiti has carried out public information campaigns in the past about hurricane preparedness. They must do so again this year, taking into account the fact that this year, it’s going to be even harder for Haitians to deal with these storms.”

World Vision has given estimates that for every dollar spent on risk reduction, at least four dollars are saved. It also cites previous disaster management case studies as proof that such strategies can work.

“We know disaster risk reduction can save lives; we saw it work in Bangladesh after Cyclone Sidr struck in 2007,” said Melisa Bodenhamer, World Vision’s Senior Advisor on disaster risk reduction. “Sadly, that cyclone killed 3,400 people, but an equally-powerful cyclone there in 1991 killed more than 143,000 Bangladeshis.”