research into possible solutions to shelter in fermathe, haiti

Thomas Burns [email protected]

Roger Williams University Provost’s Fund for Undergraduate Research: Research into Possible Solutions to Shelter in Fermathe, Haiti

August 31st, 2009

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When beginning this research into improving shelter for the people of Haiti it became more and more obvious it was an extremely complex problem. The more I spoke with my fellow RWU classmate Ermelin Moliere, who is from Haiti, and other people I met in Haiti, and reading about others who are concerned with helping Haiti the more I realized it was. Talking with Ermelin, who is also an architecture student, about how to try to improve housing it was obvious he felt the problem was extremely overwhelming. This is a comprehensive study into the challenges Haiti faces. When taking on the challenge of finding a new solution to shelter in a country such as Haiti, one must fully understand the full picture. The most important components to a society are education, health and economy. When deciding what to develop first to lead to the others it has to be thought the economy must be healthy itself, when this is true health and education will follow. ASSESSMENT OF THE CURRENT ISSUES AND CHALLENGES The three main issues I will look at are the three challenges to be tackled first. These issues are mortality, economy and the environment. These three issues ultimately determine the fate of shelter for the Haitian population. These three issues are not separate issues, but they all interconnected. Each issue has an impact on the others. For example, weather has an impact on housing in a direct relation as it can damage or destroy housing. Weather also has indirect ways of affecting housing. Weather can have a great impact on coastal farming, destroying food supplies as we recently saw the destruction of 70% of the fields in the last hurricane season. Haiti is said to have lost 800 to 1100 people in those storms, 70% destruction of farming, and destroyed 27,000 homes and displaced 800,000 people. A total of some 800,000 Haitians either lost their homes entirely or were badly affected by the storms that also left 800 people dead (UN News Centre). Mortality In the US we know what all the causes of death are, which causes rank the highest. This gives us the opportunity to react to these statistics. However, in Haiti the causes of death are still not documented adequately. It is ideal to know and understand what the main causes are in order to address these problems accordingly. What we do know is a great deal of the deaths can be avoided. Lack of infrastructure causes us to not even be able to know what people die of. Death certificates have only recently been established, and still only represent a small portion of the deaths (Country Health Profile). The PAHO estimates in 1999

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only 10% of the deaths were issued certificates, and of that, almost half of them were ill-‐defined. However, considering 80% of the population lives on less than $2 a day (The World Factbook), it is reasonable to assume a large part of the other 90% of deaths occur in the poorer regions in the slums and in the rural areas. Generally, in slums and poor rural areas the leading causes of death are results of contaminated water and diseases such as AIDS and malaria. A look the various statistics we do have from the death certificates, statistics of malnutrition and statistics of natural disasters will give us some insight into the mortality profile of this country. Food In Haiti, malnutrition is a major problem. According to a survey, overall malnutrition in 1995 was 67.3% (Country Health Profile). The United Nation’s World Food Program provided a map indicating where Haiti stands in relation to the world with malnutrition. It is shocking to see, being only about an hour and a half flight from Miami, Haiti is amongst the worst malnutrition in the world, worse than India and in the same category as some portions of Africa (image 01).

Image 01

In April of 2008, on a somber note, the New York Times reported on a new business that was booming in Haiti. Amid all the gloom, one business that was in fact booming was the selling of patties made of mud, oil and sugar. Worldfocus also did a story on this new disturbing trend, showing women in Cite Soleil preparing the cookies and the children eating them (image 02). The degree of chronic malnutrition, to the point of being underweight and stunted growth was reported by

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the WHO as of 2006. 29.7% of children under five years old are stunted for their age and 18.9% of children under five are underweight for their age (Core Health).

Image 02

Disease The PAHO reported of the recorded deaths communicable diseases amounted to the most causes of death, representing 37.5% of deaths presenting a defined diagnosis. This is a strong indication of an under-‐developed country. In the US, communicable diseases account for a very small amount of deaths. Instead, heart disease overwhelmingly leads along with cancer as the leading causes of death. In Haiti, in terms of specific causes of death, AIDS ranked first, with 5.2% of the total deaths. Contaminated water is another appalling epidemic throughout the world. More than one billion people, one-‐sixth of the world, do not have access to safe drinking water. Nearly two billion people live without access to basic sanitation (American Journal). Haiti is no exception. According to the PAHO, in 1999 the potable water supply system reached 47% of the population in the Port-‐au-‐Prince area, 46% in secondary cities, and 48% in rural areas. In terms of sanitation, coverage with excreta disposal systems was 44% in urban areas and 18% in rural areas. (Country Health Profile). This roughly equates to about 4.5 to 5 million people in Haiti not having access to clean water. Not surprisingly, the second leading cause of recorded deaths is due to diarrhea and infectious gastroenteritis (5%). Even worse, for children in the age group of 5-‐14, infectious and parasitic diseases accounted for 24% of the registered deaths. Malaria is also endemic, causing 59 deaths in 1999 (Country Health Profile).

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Natural disasters

Deaths as a direct result of natural disasters aren’t anything new in Haiti. However, due to the degradation of the environment, even small category tropical cyclones can wreck havoc amongst the coastal populations. In 2008, Hurricanes and storms Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike killed 793 people, 310 went missing and 593 were injured (Season of Dread, Guardian). These deaths as a direct result of hurricanes amounted to about 1% of all deaths. Environment The geographic location of Haiti provides an ideal climate. There are no drastic changes in temperature between the seasons and between day and night. However, the location also poses significant threats of hurricanes and it is also at risk for earthquakes because of its location on eight tectonic faults (Country Health Profile). In addition, the economic state of the country has caused severe environmental degradation. Last year’s hurricane season caused 800 deaths and it has been estimated the total damage amounted to one billion dollars. The hurricanes affected 800,000 Haitians, destroyed nearly 23,000 homes and wiped out 70% of the country's crops. They are currently still trying to recover and are even more vulnerable to this coming season (Season of Dread, Guardian). The environmental quality is also in a dire state. As 71% of the energy consumed in the country comes from wood and charcoal, natural forests cover only 3% of the land area. (Country Health Profile). This deforestation leads to poor air quality and soil erosion. Soil erosion destroys agricultural land and clogs urban sewers with mud, adding to an already poor state of excreta management. In the capital Port-‐au-‐Prince, the combination of the burning of coal for fuel, inadequate management of excreta, the congested vehicular traffic with no regulations on emissions and the lack of vegetation create an extremely poor air-‐quality. In my own experience, after being driven around in Port-‐au-‐Prince for only a few hours, I found myself getting a bad headache and a layer of dirt coating my face. Economy Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, 80% of the population lives in abject poverty. Two-‐thirds of all Haitians depend on the agriculture sector, which consists mainly of small-‐scale subsistence farming. There is widespread unemployment and underemployment; more than two-‐thirds of the labor force does not have formal jobs. The occupations of those with formal jobs are in agriculture at 66 percent, 9 percent in industry and 25 percent in services (The World Factbook).

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Haiti was at one point France’s most productive colony. At one point it was producing a great amount of the total income of France. In 1804 Haiti won its freedom and independence from France. Haiti had won its freedom, but with a price to pay. Several years later, France sent another fleet to Haiti to demand massive reparations under the threat of being attacked in the future. Haiti, still recovering from its fight for freedom, agreed to pay the reparations (Chomsky, 1998). After this, Haiti was always struggling economically and the country never again reached its pre-‐independence production levels (Library of Congress ). More recently, in the last 30 years the agricultural industry has collapsed. This can be contributed to several factors. In the last 10-‐15 years, one of main challenges has been in the environmental degradation. According to the U.S. Library of Congress, in 1988 only about 2 percent of the country had tree cover. Today, that number has actually increased to 3 percent. However, this massive deforestation has led to soil erosion, which in turn lowers the productivity of the land, worsened droughts and eventually led to desertification (Library of Congress). In 2004, Noam Chomsky pointed out at a lecture in London that Haiti was, “not long ago, self-‐sufficient in rice and is potentially a favorable place for rice production.” However, under “free trade” policies, Haiti was forced to 'liberalize' and eliminate any tariffs. Haitian farmers had to then compete with US agribusiness. This gave the Haitian farmers no chance to survive as US growers get 40 percent of their profits from US federal subsidies (Chomsky, 1998). More and more people in Haiti have given up on agriculture and moved to the city hoping to find work. The percentage of urban population in 1994 was 33 percent, the lowest in the Hemisphere. However, it has increased in recent years with rapid proliferation of shantytowns. The rural exodus has overburdened the housing situation, particularly in Port-‐au-‐Prince. (Country Health Profile). As of 2008 the urban population had jumped to 47 percent. (The World Factbook). POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS After assessing the current challenges Haiti faces, this section will identify possible solutions and precedents to be looked at in response. The three sections are mortality, the environment and the economy. Solutions to mortality The majority of the deaths in Haiti are mainly due to an unstable and under-‐developed environment. Many of the main causes of death can be reduced drastically when people are more stable and can provide more preventative measures, treatment and education. However, there are currently some simple and realistic possibilities to facilitate.

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Disease Communicable diseases are the highest cause of death in Haiti. There are several possibilities to reduce many of the infections due to water contamination and mosquito-‐spread diseases. Today, many people boil their water using wood charcoal. As a consequence, trees are becoming more and more scarce. One possible solution is using bamboo charcoal. Because bamboo grows so fast, the demand and yield can be met much easier than conventional wood charcoal. Another possible solution is, rather than boiling with charcoal, using a solar cooker. In a solar cooker sunlight is converted to heat energy that is retained for boiling water for drinking and cooking. Another option is a ceramic water purifier. A ceramic water purifier (CWP) is a simple, pressed bucket shape made with a mix of local terra-‐cotta clay and sawdust or other combustible, such as rice husks. Poor living environments also promote Malaria. High dense slums and urban areas lead to breading grounds for malaria. Open water including open sewage areas creates places for mosquitoes to lay eggs. The high density living of these places then creates the setting for the spread of Malaria. Malaria is spread when a non-‐infected mosquito bites an infected person sucking up parasites from the person's blood. Then, when the mosquito bites someone else, that person will become infected with malaria parasites. This creates a cycle as more and more people get infected. Before there was treatment for Malaria, Jared Diamond points out in pre-‐colonial African societies the people understood they could not live near water and they had to live spread out (Diamond, 2005). Today, the spread of Malaria can be controlled by rather simple means. Mosquito nets covering doors and windows reduce the risk. Also, because Malaria mosquitoes bite at night, hanging a net over beds also helps. People should not live, especially sleep, near open water. Food shortages Malnutrition is another issue that leads to many other problems. Malnutrition makes people much more vulnerable to getting sick and can also have a profound psychological impact on the people. Last year, one of the first food riots of the recent food crisis broke out on the streets of Port-‐au-‐Prince. Hungary, angry protestors raided the president’s palace demanding something be done. Rice, beans and fruit, the main staples of their diet, had gone up 50% in one year. There were many demonstrations in different towns, with some turning deadly (Food riots, BBC). The recent financial crisis has also led many countries to cut back on the amount of aid originally pledged. On World Food Day in October of 2008, before the worst of the current financial crisis, former UN chief Kofi Annan accused rich countries of reneging on promises to help feed the world's hungry (Rich Nations, BBC).

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Haiti must be able to feed itself and not rely so heavily on outside sources. Haiti was not long ago, and still could be, self-‐sufficient in providing rice to its population. Cuba experienced a similar predicament 20 years ago. The island’s main trading partner collapsed. Cuba could no longer rely on the Soviet Union for cheap fuel and food. With little options, the island underwent a complete transformation. Today, using organic practices that are being studied by people around the world, Cuba is nearly 90 percent self-‐sufficient in providing food to its people (Vegetable gardeners, BBC). Natural Disasters Death as a direct result of hurricanes is something that is avoided by better infrastructure. The economic conditions in Haiti lead many to live in high-‐dense, unsafe urban areas. Some communities, such as Gonaives, are even under sea level. When storms hit these areas the massive devastation is just waiting to happen. The best way to solve this is to provide better opportunities to people outside these areas so the cities are not overwhelmed. Solutions to Dealing with Environment A rising cause for concern around the world is the effects of climate change. Those to be affected by climate change the most are those living in developing countries. As these countries already have little resources to provide to their populations, responding to natural disasters will be extremely difficult. The environment in Haiti poses many challenges. However, many of these challenges are due to the poor economic state. The main environmental challenge lies in hurricanes and the country’s vulnerability to them due to deforestation. Lack of money leads to people cutting down trees to sell and use for fuel which in turn leads to deforestation. The obvious solution to this is reforestation projects and increasing agricultural production. Farming should be spread out so it will not all be destroyed at once. Therefore, when large storms do hit, the people would be more spread out along with farming, and the easier food will get to people if transportation is cut off. This increased agricultural production with a combination of replanting trees and more food will help not only the environment but also provide a solution to the food shortage and economic problems. Solutions to Economic Problems

Solutions to the economic problems are crucial to the future of Haiti. There are many ways to create jobs, but a focus must be made on what types of jobs are created. Recently, former U.S. President Bill Clinton was named U.N. envoy to Haiti, and he made a visit to Haiti promoting a new economic model to be employed. The

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nature of this model was for the most part a continuation of failed unsustainable practices. Haiti should instead look to a different approach of promoting long term and sustainable solutions. IDE (International Development Enterprises) and Kickstart are both examples that have shown an approach of a model for economic growth that has shown great progress. Both these organizations focus on identifying economic opportunities that will serve multiple purposes. IDE and Kickstart create long-‐term, sustainable economic models by identifying the needs of the people and finding a way to help the people create a domestic economy based on meeting these needs. IDENTIFICATION AND PROPOSAL OF OPTIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES As the Chinese Proverb goes: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for the day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” This should always guide our way of thinking. We should focus on providing assistance rather than aid. Instead of sending foreigners to build roads, send them to train others to train themselves to build the roads. There is a great deal of needs in Haiti, and creating sustainable jobs is a major one. The jobs to be created should be focused on providing for themselves, rather than providing for exports. One thing is to create jobs that generate income; another thing is to cater those jobs to provide a need on the island. This is very simple. Rather than creating manufacturing jobs to produce products that will be shipped to consumers outside their island, create manufacturing jobs producing affordable, practical farming tools which can be sold to Haitians to farm, which creates another job while also providing a domestic source of food as well as many other jobs based off of the distribution of that food. Given that aid is provided to Haiti by the outside world, this aid should be focused on assisting the country to become more secure by investing in the countries domestic economy. Once enough assistance is provided it will no longer be needed. Instead, we currently provide “one way aid” which almost guarantees dependence. As CARE recently pointed out, the food should at least be bought from the country of which it is providing the food to. This way it will be stimulating the economy rather than undermining it. CARE’s 2006 report, “White Paper on Food Aid Policy,” points out that the current food aid program is motivated by profit rather than altruism. The policy, which dictates that donated money be used to purchase food in the home country, results in a program driven by “the export and surplus disposal objectives of the exporting country” and not the needs of people in hunger (White Paper, CARE). The current US policy implements the practice of monetization, a food aid policy in which the US government buys surplus food from American agribusinesses that have already been heavily subsidized, and ships it via US shipping lines. This also generates transport costs that eat up much of the $2 billion annual food aid provided by the US government (White Paper, CARE). If the food instead was

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provided by Haitian farming the transportation costs would be nearly eliminated, letting that money saved to invest more into their businesses. Talking with Lionel Allen, the architect I met with in Haiti, it was obvious he felt the main challenge to overcome was economic. He said health problems do not slow the country down, not enough money brings about poor health quality. As I asked about the main challenges to construction and shelter he again said it was lack of money. He said Haiti actually provided an ideal climate for construction. The seasonal changes are not significant enough to restrain construction. Although he acknowledged the problem of hurricanes he said overall they are not much of a problem, but rather the massive damage and destruction is due to poor living situations. This is true if it is looked at carefully. For example the recent destruction and devastation of Gonaives could have been avoided. Much of Gonaives is under or dangerously close to sea level, similar to New Orleans. This area has also become overpopulated as people of come here from the countryside looking for work. Many of the homes are built out of scrap metal which have little chance to withstand the high winds of the hurricanes. Lionel also estimated over 80% of all concrete structures are built inadequately, without the proper mix. This means these buildings will not withstand the forces expected and do not ensure durability and longevity. We recently saw the collapse of several schools in Haiti, which are disturbing testimonials to Lionel’s estimate. On May 19, former U.S. President Bill Clinton was named U.N. envoy to Haiti, following the U.N.’s endorsement of “the Collier Report” (Collier, 2009) by British economist Paul Collier to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-‐Moon. Collier argues that the apparel industry is the single greatest opportunity in Haiti. Haiti’s comparative advantage is twofold – its proximity to the U.S., which facilitates quick delivery in a time-‐sensitive industry such as apparel as well as Haiti’s extremely low wages. Haiti has tried this approach before and it has not worked. Sub-‐contracted, low-‐wage factory work does not contribute much to the economy besides jobs. Being exempt from taxes, it does not contribute to the financing of Haiti’s social services. It simply works for a little while but has to long-‐term potential. This approach works because it takes advantage of the low-‐wage workers. The low wages cannot be increased to the point the workers can buy more than food and housing costs for things like education and health care. If the wages are increased, these factories will not be able to compete with other factories in the world that can pay lower for manufacturing the same products. At this point, the factories would usually shut down and relocate to a place where they can find people who will accept lower wages. In the US, we have ourselves experienced this with many factory jobs being outsourced. The type of assistance given to Haiti is crucial. The Kickstart organization mentioned earlier believes “giveaways create dependency.” Aid programs that give things away offer temporary alleviation at best. At worst they create dependency and damage

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the local economy. Giveaways make sense in response to a humanitarian crisis, but they are not a long-‐term or sustainable solution to poverty. USAID recently initiated a bamboo reforestation project. This is something of great potential if an economic model similar to the approaches of Kickstart and IDE promoted. USAID took on the challenge of restoring native ecosystems, preserving soil nutrients for future crops, and decreasing erosion to improve farming life for Haitians. Bamboo, which grows rapidly and has multiple applications, is ideal to help many needs in Haiti. Bamboo can be used as construction material, to stabilize stream banks, and for traditional arts and crafts, an industry in which there is growing interest on the part of small-‐scale farmers. The results of USAID’s project showed of the 2,000 farmers who received plants, most farm one to two hectares of land and have planted 50% of the bamboo plants for construction, 25% for crafts and 25% for erosion control and reforestation. In Paul Polak’s Out of Poverty he asks the quest why people leave their home villages to live as slum dwellers and tolerate such low living standards. He says the answer is simple. “They live in slums and on sidewalks without a roof if they must because they need jobs and income to survive, and they have made the rational decision that they are more likely to find them in the city than in the villages (Polak, 2008).” This is especially true in Haiti. The agriculture industry has dwindled down to almost nothing in the last 30 years. As the people saw they could not compete with the rest of the world and especially US subsidized farming industry they gave up their farms and moved to Port-‐au-‐Prince and the surrounding slums.

Adopting an approach similar to IDE and Kickstart to employ people to solve the many problems would have great potential for the country of Haiti. Creating a peasant-‐based economy to meet the needs of their own population would be a long-‐lasting, multi-‐functioning solution. Mark Schuller, a professor at York College, says “Haiti’s food security depends first on Haiti’s food sovereignty (Schuller, 2009).” The focus should be shifted; rather than creating industries based on manufacturing goods to be exported, the Haitian people can create industries in manufacturing products the population needs. Such products could for example farm tools and water treatment products. CONCLUSION After visiting Haiti in 2008, as an architectural student I wanted to help the people of Haiti find a new solution to shelter. My second visit was a much different experience. I realized my first trip I was overwhelmed with the situation and I saw it as one big problem. My second visit, when trying to figure out how to help, I was able to see past the initial shock and see behind that lies numerous problems.

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“Deye mon gen mon.” This famous Haitian proverb translates to “Behind the mountains, more mountains.” They say this because this is a way Haitians see life; behind the problems there are more problems. After doing this research I can see any solutions to shelter must be integrated into a long-‐term, sustainable economic model. One must look at the building resources available in terms of the different materials and their characteristics. Everything must be considered; from the costs and integrity in relationship to the structural quality, to how well they are suitable to the Haitian environment on all levels. That includes how well it is suitable to the climate, natural environment, and economic environment.

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research into possible solutions to shelter in fermathe, haiti

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