In case you missed it: USAID-OCHA Summary Report Feb. 25 on Haiti relief response to date

The US AID report for Feb. 25 includes summary information for the UN Cluster/WASH humanitarian response in Haiti to date.

Take home message: While the overall situation remains catastrophic, progress is noted in coordination, sanitation of certain formal settlements, delivery of specific supplies like medicine, toilets, surgical kits to field hospitals, more shelters, etc.

What's still unmet demand, very urgent: the crisis in the cities, towns and informal 'tent' cities away from the capital, where extreme is driving people to skip meals and sell anything they can in their desperation to access some food.

So: food distribution to areas outside the cities, and to settlements in other cities (Leogane, Petit Goave, etc.) is critical still.

That doesn't mean people in Port-au-Prince aren't suffering greatly -- they are. But the focus of the relief effort, centered as it is still in the capital, has helped to mitigate this for some groups, while those living in ravines and outside formal settlements are still struggling to access essential services, including food aid, water, some plastic sheeting.

As the rains pour down in Haiti, some highlights I noted from this summary:

> As I mention above, food distribution is not reaching many in the countryside and provicial towns and cities -- a point called 'negative coping mechanisms' by relief officials. Read: Rising Malnutrition... extreme hunger....

> IOM reports that 140,000 + households received shelter -- a 40% increase from February 18. Read: Solid progress, but still woefully inadequate given demand, and delays, bottlenecks of distribution of warehoused supplies. Two more cargo planeloads of plastic sheeting arrived (1350 sheet total in last two days), and should be distributed in more timely fashion, as Shelter Cluster coordination continues to improve.(Note: Media reports say many tents, some tarps more readily available now for sale in capital, but provinces still struggling to access sufficient plastic sheeting.)

> Not surprisingly, informal settlements in the capital and downtown areas have terrible sanitation conditions, and those who are more organized have better. Two successes: Champ de Mars settlement site (20,000 ppl) and Stadium (3,500 ppl) are deemed to have adequate sanitation. Also Clinton Initiative delivered 1000 toilers. (My comment: what defines 'adequate sanitation' by agency standards? In torrential rain, risk of increased disease linked to spread of waste in human settlements increases. What we know is people are camped in what have become mud ten cities.)

So far, no major outbreaks reported, but people in informal settlement deemed to be in poorer health due to higher exposure to unsanitary conditions.

> Most common health problems now: respiratory infections,diarrhea, injuries, suspected malaria. (Not included in this report, but happening: parallel distribution of bed nets by some NGOs to many informal settlements to mitigate malaria risk.)

> A second phase of Food distribution will begin March 1. The Govt of Haiti has asked each major NGO partner in the UN Cluster response to be assigned a geographic area of activity by that date, for improved coordination of food aid and water distribution


> The World Food Program this week announced a Hot Food distribution plan at 70 school sites, while plans to reopen schools in April remain on schedule. (In unrelated news, UN Early Recovery Cluster representatives are working with volunteer US and other earthquake-savvy structural engineers to assess schools for risk of collapse.)

> The USGS provided an update of future seismic risk activity, noting the probability of earthquakes, and reported that aftershocks are likely to continue but less frequently -- a similar report to their last announcement.

(Note: for readers who missed it, I posted an earlier Haiti Vox blog, based on my interview with Haiti's official geologist, Claude Prepetit, on his prediction of a 6.0 earthquake in the northern part of Haiti within 6 months. He is working with French expert geologist Dr. Eric Calais. A 4-person team of scientists from the University of Texas and USGS just arrived to take more seismic measurements.

(Note: The U of Texas team were those who worked with the Prepetit-Calais team to issue a warning to Haiti of a possible 7.0 or greater quake. Prepetit and Calais have been taking field measurements since the quake struck and hope to expand the catchment capacity of the monitoring system, including monitoring in the north, and to encourage a parallel effort in the Dominican Republic.)