Rubble Debris Haiti Earthquake

Challenges in need of Solutions

Competing claims and estimates how long to remove it so rebuilding can begin Alister William Macintyre research notes Last updated 2011 June 19 Version 2.1

Table of Contents
First time visitors (1 June 19)......................................................................................................... 2 Introduction (1 Jan 23)........................................................................................................................ 2 Version History (1 Jun 16) ....................................................................................................3 Tags (1 Jun 19) ............................................................................................................................ 3 Progress Clearing Mess (1 May 27)............................................................................................... 3 USAID 2011 May (1 May 27) ...................................................................................................4 US State Dept 2011 April (1 May 01) ...................................................................................... 4 GAO 11-415 on IHRC thru March (1 June 16).....................................................................4 Vancouver Sun Rubble Photos (1 March 10) ......................................................................... 5 US Institute of Peace 2011 Mar (1 Mar 10) ............................................................................ 5 Big Picture 2011 Feb (1 Feb 26) ............................................................................................... 5

Haiti Earthquake Rubble Debris Challenges

Leogane progress 2011 Feb (1 Feb 21).................................................................................... 7 IPS News on why Haphazard (1 March 11) ........................................................................... 8 Rubble Conflicts 2011 Jan (1 Mar 10)...................................................................................... 8 IG audit 2010 Nov estimate (1 May 07) .................................................................................. 9 Rubble progress 2010 Oct (1 Feb 21)....................................................................................10 Earthquake Rubble Debris (1 Jun 16)............................................................................................. 10 Whats in that Pile? (0 Oct 05) ................................................................................................ 11 A Machinery Solution Proposal (0 Oct 05)...........................................................................12 Debris needs to go some place (0 Oct 05) ............................................................................13 Confused Perceptions (1 Jun 19)............................................................................................ 13 Leslie Voltaire Clarification (0 Oct 04) ..................................................................................14 Prime Minister Bellerive Clarification (0 Oct 04).................................................................14 Volunteer Entrepreneur Building (0 Sep 20) ........................................................................14 Rubble Disposal Choices (1 Jun 19) ...........................................................................................15

First time visitors (1 June 19)

If you are visiting my doc for first time, whats significant here is there are several significant barriers to Haiti serious rebuilding after disasters. One of them is getting the rubble cleared. In this document I explore how come it is taking so long.

Introduction (1 Jan 23)

Topic sub-titles end in a date signifying when that info last updated, so by viewing table of contents, we see where most recent input to these research notes, especially aiding people with copy of an earlier version. Digit 1 in front of month means 2011. Users of my research hold Alister Wm. Macintyre harmless, and also the places I upload my research to, and agree that my copyright is reserved and that the information is available for the intended purpose of helping in the recovery of Haiti. Some of my research content is direct quotes from other sources. I try to give credit every time I do this. These notes began in a separate research document, which subsequently got split into related topics, when they became too voluminous. If your interest is in Haiti housing challenges in general, perhaps you should start with my Glossary of Haiti Housing challenges, which includes references to all my related Housing research notes documents, and to many external sources.

Haiti Earthquake Rubble Debris Challenges

Version History (1 Jun 16)

For convenience of other people to download copies of my research, I plan to upload periodic updates of this research notes document (Haiti Earthquake Rubble Debris), and some of my other research, to: Yahoo Groups / HDRR = Haiti Disaster Recovery Research / Files / Recovery Challenges Haiti Prism which has developed some very economical and safe housing solutions to meet Haitis needs.1 HR = Haiti Rewired / Building Housing Communities / Discussions / DeMystifying Barriers to Haiti Recovery RHB = Rebuild Haiti Back Better thread = Navigation Resources2 My Linked In profile3 Box Net files.4 Major updates since version 1.0: broke long chunks of text into logical pieces; tradeoff between major philosophies in definition of rubble challenges; Version 1.0 uploaded Oct 05 = 5 pages 60 k

Tags (1 Jun 19)

When uploading this document, where tags or keywords invited, here are suitable choices: Confusion, Debris, Demolition, Earthquake, Haiti, Housing, Land Owners, OCHA, Rebuilding, Recovery, Resettlement, Rubble, Shelter, Statistics, UN, USAID, Description: Haiti cannot rebuild until the earthquake rubble is cleared. How long will this take, and why?

Progress Clearing Mess (1 May 27)

In this chapter I share progress reports in reverse date order, so on top we can see the latest news, then work downwards to see net change rate of improvement. I am using the same technique in my T-shelter progress notes. Different news media have been publishing widely different estimates of how much has in fact been resolved, so be careful when repeating whatever the numbers allegedly are.

1 2

3
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http://www.katrina.prizm.org/index.html http://rebuildhaitibetter.net/forum/topics/navigation-resources

http://www.linkedin.com/in/almacintyre

If you are a member of Box Net, but not Linked In, my user-id on Box Net is AlMac99.

Haiti Earthquake Rubble Debris Challenges

USAID 2011 May (1 May 27)

USAID comes out with regular reports, which describe the overall situation in Haiti, and progress addressing that situation. On May 16 they issued Haiti Cholera and Earthquake Fact Sheet #4, Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 which I downloaded using name Sitrep 2011 May 16 USAID. It is a 5 page 54k PDF. On April 28, USAID/OFDA staff conducted a monitoring visit of the CHF International rubble removal program in the Ravine Pintade area of Port-au-Prince. As of April 28, CHF International had demolished and cleared four large buildings in the area deemed redor unsafe for habitationby habitability assessments, using heavy equipment. In addition to large-scale rubble removal with heavy machinery, CHF International employs the local community through a cash-for-work program to remove smaller pieces of rubble.

US State Dept 2011 April (1 May 01)

In April 2011, President Elect Martelly visited Washington DC,5 where US Secretary of State Clintons remarks included: This election comes at a critical moment. In the 15 months since the earthquake, there has been progress in important areas. Twenty percent of the rubble, more than 2 million cubic meters, has been cleared,6 and that was through a program, that employed more than 350,000 people, which the United States was proud to support.

GAO 11-415 on IHRC thru March (1 June 16)

IHRC = Interim Haiti Recovery Commission. Projects in Haiti, involving $ 500 million or more, are supposed to get IHRC approval and oversight. Less expensive ones dont need IHRC involvement. Here are IHRC policy review criteria: IHRC determines if a submitted project is aligned with the Action Plan and government of Haiti sector strategies; addresses a clear gap in the Action Plan or sector plan(s); provides desirable social and economic benefit; has donors and implementers with the capacity to carry out the project effectively; has an appropriate budget; has been sufficiently coordinated with the Haitian government; has been assessed for its social and environmental impact; was also submitted to affected communities for input; makes a sustainable change; maximizes use of local labor and local resources; and promotes gender equality. 86 projects have been approved by IHRC thru March 2011. 14 of them will be fully or partially funded by the USA. GAO compared the 86 projects approved by IHRC through March 2011 with the Action Plans 18-month budgetary requirements. We found that
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2011/04/161375.htm http://www.belpolitik.com/blog.php/356 6 If we believe 20% in 15 months, and that this rate can be sustained, thats 75 months or 6 years and 3 months for the entire job, getting completed April 2016,
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Haiti Earthquake Rubble Debris Challenges

approved projects exceed the total 18-month needs outlined in the Action Plan in some sectors, while other sectors received only a fraction of the 18-month requirements in the Action Plan. For example:

removal, but as of March 2011, IHRC approved an estimated $52 million for debris removal projects. Agriculture. The Action Plan outlines an 18-month need of $260 million for agricultural production. However, IHRC has approved projects in the agricultural sector totaling about $380 million. Institutional rebuilding. The Action Plan identifies an 18-month need for more than $800 million to rebuild and improve Haitian government institutions; IHRC has approved about $113 million in projects to address this challenge. Transportation network. The Action Plan identified an 18-month need of $180 million to improve the national transportation network. As of February 2011, IHRC has approved road-construction projects totaling more than $680 million. I explore this GAO report in more detail inside my Glossary Housing (and other) Haiti Challenges research notes.

Debris removal. The Action Plan outlines an 18-month need of $265 million for debris

Vancouver Sun Rubble Photos (1 March 10)

In a news story published March 9, the Canadian Vancouver Sun shares details and photos of one of the dumps where the rubble has been going.7 Haiti is going to need more dump sites to accommodate the total volume.

US Institute of Peace 2011 Mar (1 Mar 10)

In a report published March 7, on Lessons for Haiti Future, 8 the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) claims only 5% of the quake-created rubble has been removed.

Big Picture 2011 Feb (1 Feb 26) John Rigdon commented on Derek Xava's group "Architecture for Haiti" on Haiti
Rewired:9 The following below is what John had to say to us. ------------

Friday nite (Feb 18 2011) I attended a town meeting with some officials from Haiti who are with USAID and the state department and it helped a great deal to see the big picture.
7

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Photos+Haitians+struggle+wasteland+rubble+trash+wake+earthquak e/4410998/story.html 8 See my 1 year USIP mini-review for more info. In that mini-review I shared digest of other groups claims how much so far by various dates (1 month earlier 15% done), and how much total needs to be removed = 12 to 20 million meters, in reports so far thru early 2011 March. 9 http://haitirewired.wired.com/group/architectureforhaiti

Haiti Earthquake Rubble Debris Challenges

These comments are my impression of the meeting and what I brought away from it. They are by no means official notes on the proceedings. The primary speakers were: Thomas C. Adams. Haiti Special Coordinator U.S. State Department & Russell Porter, Director, Haiti Task Team USAID They stated that there were 12 million meters of rubble to be removed and to date only 2 million have been removed. By this fall they will be at 6 million and at that point they can begin reconstruction. They stated that 20% of the structures were destroyed, 15% had repairable damage and 65% were damaged beyond repair. This makes removal of the rubble extremely difficult. For any given street which is extremely narrow and too crowded to get earth moving machinery into, there may be 2 good buildings, 6 damaged but still standing with RED warning stickers and scheduled for demolition, and two that are just piles of rubble. The focus now is keeping the people alive and as healthy as possible. They were feeding 4.5 million people daily right after the quake and are now feeding 1.5 million. Overall their concentrated efforts last summer to get food crops growing around the country has been highly successful and this is evidenced by the abundance of food in the markets. Fully half of the civil servants were killed in the quake or left the country shortly thereafter and they are just now finding people to fill most of the govermental positions. The man who is heading up the efforts for the state department, Thomas Adams, was also the head of the relief effort for the fall of the Soviet Union, the tsunami, and the Iraqi rebuilding and he stated several times that for disasters of this nature it takes 18 months to get the rebuilding on stride and by every measure they are ahead of goals in Haiti. Overall I'm much more encouraged with the situation now. My biggest disappointment is that with an estimated 50,000 Haitians in Atlanta now, there were only about 100 in attendance and probably 25 of us were not native Haitians as could be told by our light skin. A Power point slide which they presented for which I do not have a copy, but which I will try to locate showed the twenty or so major players in the reconstruction effort. This included govenrmental, business, and NGOs. They spent some time discussing how each of these are "tasked" with reconstruction efforts. They stressed that USAID and the State department has no real over sight over how each of these other entities spent their money, but generally they are all cooperating in the effort and not interfering with each other's initiative. USAID and the U.S. Government are primarily responsible for "Social" issues, establishing and training governmental and societal organizations. They are not responsible or involved in physical reconstruction.

Haiti Earthquake Rubble Debris Challenges

The Canadian government is primarily involved in decentralization of the Haitian citizenry, working to build infrastructure in the south and north of the island. Brazil is responsible for security and this does not include just the obvious manifestation of MINUSTAH, but in training 8,000 Haitian Police of a needed 16,000 target 4 years out. They talked about the need to VET the applicants and the necessity of remedial training in reading, etc. that is far beyond the basic training needed for most security personnel. The American Red Cross is responsible for physical relief of the current population, but their work does not extend to long term housing. Cuba is responsible for medical relief, training of personnel, and rebuilding of hospitals and clinics. Ireland (Digicel) is responsible for communications.

Venezuela is responsible for energy issues including both gas and electrical infrastructure.
This should give you an idea of how they perceive the situation and the plan going forward. Similar meetings are planned in Washington and Boston with future meetings in Chicago and St. Louis.

I think it will be increasingly important for people looking to work in Haiti to identify who is in charge of a particular area of reconstruction and seek out those in charge of that group. I will try to find the PowerPoint slide and / or the supporting documentation for the presentation. -----------Here is John Rigdon comment.10

Leogane progress 2011 Feb (1 Feb 21)

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Associate Administrator visited the Leogane11 debris management project, and a report on this visit was shared 2011 Feb 14.12 This project will, by the end of 2011, remove approx 325,000 cubic meters of debris resulting from the collapse of 80 % of Leogane's buildings in the 12 January 2010 earthquake.

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http://haitirewired.wired.com/group/architectureforhaiti?commentId=4920407%3AComment%3A34021&xg _source=msg_com_group Leogane is a city SW of Pap, on the inside coast of Haiti, which was one of the most devastated by the Jan 12, 2010 earthquake. 12 OCHA Relief Web Summary.
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Haiti Earthquake Rubble Debris Challenges

Thanks to the support of the Canadian, Kuwait and Finnish governments, this project started November 2010. According to Alexis Santos, mayor of Leogane, 10 months after the earthquake nothing significant had been done to remove and manage the debris in the town until the launch of UNDP's project. People in the Leogane IDP communities select priorities for rubble removal, so as to expedite their return to safe housing. To date, 1,640 workers have been temporarily employed to remove rubble, and 240 damaged houses demolished, using a combination of heavy machinery and high intensive labor activities. So far, 87,000 cubic meters of debris have been taken to a special site for stockpiling and treatment, where at a later stage, workers will also sort, crush and dispose of debris following technical and environmental specifications. The same site will host a recycling centre that will use some of the debris to produce paving blocks for road repairs, creating longer term and sustainable job opportunities for the local population and contributing to the economic recovery of the region.

IPS News on why Haphazard (1 March 11)

In a news story published March 11, IPS News says, 13 that as of one year after the earthquake: Only 5 % of the estimated 20 million cubic meters of rubble has been cleared. Only 15% of the temporary homes have been built.

Rubble Conflicts 2011 Jan (1 Mar 10)

Remember that 2010 Jan 12 was when the earthquake occurred, to help us see when exactly is 1 year after. Many places have published reports a few months before and a few months after the anniversary, using 1 year after in their descriptions. This is probably an estimate, really approximately 1 year after. USAID 1 year overview report on shelters and settlements dated 2011 Jan 11 reports:14
Rubble continues as a major impediment to recovery in earthquake-affected areas, with most reports suggesting that only a small percentage of rubble has been removed and disposed to date. Rubble obstructs physical access to

13 14

http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/JARD8D33LV?OpenDocument&rc=2&cc=hti with link to full PDF report: http://reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/JARD-8D33LV/$File/full_report.pdf (Source: OCHA/Relief Web)

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54075 OCHA Relief Web Summary here

For more information on USAID/OFDA shelter and settlements sector activities, please visit: http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/humanitarian_assistance/disaster_assistance/sectors/shelter.html

Haiti Earthquake Rubble Debris Challenges

neighborhoods and prevents use of land for t-shelters. In addition, it reduces opportunities to repair yellow houses and limits the ability to return to greentagged structures. Some land owners may be contributing to delays in removing rubble due to concerns regarding the future use of their property. Rubble also impedes access for heavy machinery to demolish unsafe buildings; prevents residents from returning to safe houses, particularly those imperiled by unstable buildings in close proximity; and creates hazards by blocking drainage, roads, and other infrastructure. Rubble removal thus requires balancing the need to remove debris quickly with the importance of active community involvement in the removal and neighborhood improvement process. USAID is primarily utilizing cash-forwork programs for rubble removal but is incorporating the use of heavy equipment to increase the speed and quantity of rubble removed. USAID/OFDA grantees are guiding rubble removal efforts and the recovery of affected areas through a neighborhood-based approach featuring an incremental process of building confidence among neighborhood residents to participate in the recovery of their communities, working with residents to map land holdings, and mediating tenure-related conflicts, when necessary. In the interest of building back better, grantees also engaged with communities to reconfigure neighborhoods, thereby improving preearthquake conditions and reducing vulnerability to future disasters. The neighborhood approach is being supported, in part, by a larger project featuring Haitian Diaspora planning, architecture, and engineering professionals to assist both implementing partners and the GoH to formulate neighborhood level and city-wide plans that can facilitate increased shelter production in new and innovative ways.

In January 2011, the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission report 15 claimed there are 19 million cubic meters to be removed, and they anticipate that 20% of that, or 4 million cubic meters, will have been removed by October 2011, when they turn over the job to a Haiti government agency which does not yet exist. (My math = at that rate, get the job completed as of 100 months after the earthquake.)

IG audit 2010 Nov estimate (1 May 07)

According to Inspector General Audit of USAID, published 2011 April 19, which I discuss mainly in my T-Shelter notes document, up to 11 months after the earthquake (ie.
Nov 2011), only about 5 percent of the estimated 20 to 33 million cubic yards of rubble had been removed. This is given as one of the reasons for the delays in T-shelter construction.

15

See my 1 year IHRC mini-review.

Haiti Earthquake Rubble Debris Challenges

Rubble progress 2010 Oct (1 Feb 21) New York Times reports Oct-17 about one of the contractors (Haiti Recovery Group)

clearing some of the rubble of destroyed buildings. Major cleanup and rebuilding is not expected to happen until next year. The delay in getting started on this involves finger pointing instead of mutual cooperation, between the different actors who can each contribute a piece of the solution decisions, funding. International officials blamed the Haitian government for failing to take charge and create a master plan for debris removal and resettlement. Haitian officials, however, maintain that international donors themselves were slow to make rubble a priority. USAID Haiti Quake Fact Sheet # 2 Fiscal Year 2011 dated 2010 Oct-816 reports: On October 5, USAID/OFDA Haiti Program Office staff visited the Avenue Poupelard neighborhood of Port-au-Prince to assess ongoing progress on shelter activities by USAID/OFDA grantee CHF International. CHF International is working to provide housing to approximately 1,300 families in Avenue Poupelard through yellow house repairs and t-shelter construction as part of a neighborhoodbased approach to facilitate returns to areas of origin and re-establish pre-earthquake social and economic structures. USAID/OFDA staff noted that large plots of land had been cleared since previous visits to Avenue Poupelard. The progress was in part due to CHF International negotiations with local landowners to arrange strategic building demolitions to improve access to the interior of the neighborhood, thereby accelerating the rubble removal process. In much of Avenue Poupelard, residents are living in temporary shelters constructed on the rubble of former houses. To clear rubble from those sites and provide shelter while houses undergo demolition or repair, CHF International houses residents in a small group of t-shelters known as hotels, built on land temporarily loaned by local landowners. In exchange, CHF International removes rubble from landowners plots, saving landowners a significant cost in return for temporary use of their land.

Earthquake Rubble Debris (1 Jun 16)

The Haiti Earthquake created a volume of debris which is astronomical compared to many previous disasters. People trying to do something about it, often appear to be in a state of chaos or anarchy.

16

Relief Web summary, with link to full detail PDF. (Source: OCHA/Relief Web)

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There is a trade-off that the many actors struggle with. This is not a rhetorical question, because even though some of us think one of the two choices is the obvious answer, theres lots of supporters for each of them. 1. Is it better to get the rubble debris cleared from potential rebuilding sites as fast as possible, which means using a machinery solution? In other words, Haiti will be better served by putting the people in safer homes, with places they can have jobs, in the next few years, instead of waiting decades until the rubble can be cleared by hand. Remember that the total volume of rubble from the Haiti earthquake is astronomical compared to WTC of 9/11, and remember how long it took to clear that by modern construction machinery and convoy of dump trucks. This approach is favored by supporters of beltway bandits, meaning sooner profits for companies from outside of Haiti. 2. Is it better to get the rubble debris cleared using Haitian laborers via cash-for-work (CFW) so money flows into the economy? In other words, revitalizing the economy with stimulus money, bottom up, is more important than making it practical to rebuild the destroyed buildings, any time in the next few years. This approach is favored by many NGOs who would prefer Haiti to continue to be a Republic of NGOs for another 100 years. Joseph Vitarelli (a contact on Facebook and Haiti Rewired) writes:17 J/P HRO18 recently completed a rubble removal project in Delmas 32. This included bulldozing and removal of "red" houses. This effort required heavy machinery, Haitian workers and drivers and JP HRO staff. It seems to me this should be the model as it's been done successfully. And I believe it took 6-8 weeks to complete. I posted in a blog early in 2010, what I thought could be done with the rubble, and since then many people have added other thoughts, researched how much can be recycled, but these ideas have not yet filtered into the consciousness of the people in charge of Haiti, and not for want of people telling them about these ideas and research. 19

Whats in that Pile? (0 Oct 05)

What can be in a Disaster Debris Pile?

Dead bodies, and body parts E-wastes such as computers, telephones and TVs White goods such as refrigerators, washing machines, dryers
End of Sept 2010. NGO run by Sean Penn. 19 http://haitirewired.wired.com/profiles/blogs/debris-removal-from-haiti
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Hazardous materials such as bleach Radioactive materials from hospitals, industries and laboratories Explosive gases from households, hospitals, industries Petroleum products from gas stations, power plants PCBs from transformers Ammunition from houses, army camps and police stations Disaster Rescue workers waste products, without garbage pickup

A Machinery Solution Proposal (0 Oct 05)

Gilles Boulanger prepared a 20 minute video describing his proposal. Anyone interested in the fate of Haiti, and dependent on news media version of reality, is invited to watch it and comment on it. Click here to see the video20 where he draws a parallel between snow removal and rubble removal. If you don't know what a snow blower is 21 because you live in a place where it never snows, he suggests we get a primer by watching the snow blower 101 video here. Al Mac commented on Gilles proposal explaining that much of what he proposes is already being done, and has been going on for months, but when the mainstream news media paints a fantasy about reality in Haiti, many well meaning persons expend a lot of effort coming up with solutions to the news media fantasies. Heavy equipment needed to be shipped in by sea, but could then be moved to where most needed, by military helicopters. Dump trucks have difficulty navigating narrow and mountainous dirt roads, which could be upgraded using crushed rubble. What passes for real estate records system in Haiti22 makes it hard for the government to determine who owns a dilapidated property. Before the quake, on average it took one year for anyone to figure out for sure who owned property. The quake just made that a worse challenge. There are few sites on which to dump the rubble, which often contains human remains. No single person, nor ministry in the Haitian government, has been declared in charge of the rubble, prompting foreign nongovernmental organizations to take on the task themselves. NGOs are often forced to fight for a small pool of available money and contracts - which means the work is done piecemeal, with little coordination.
http://www.project1849.com/Camtsia/Rubble_Removal_LinkedIn/Rubble_Removal_LinkedIn.htm Haiti is a nation which never experiences snow (frozen rain). A snow blower is like a lawn mower (in fact manufactured by same type companies). It runs on fuel which must be imported to Haiti, and is a method of moving snow a very short distance, typically to improve ability to navigate highways and driveways which got covered in snow. Haiti rubble debris for the most part cannot be recycled constructively, so it needs to be moved a longer distance than the snow parallel. 22 This topic covered in detail in another of Al Mac research notes documents see directory of them in Glossary of Housing Challenges in Haiti.
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Debris needs to go some place (0 Oct 05)

There are stories of the same rubble being moved multiple times by different organizations, to basically be out of THEIR way, which means it can end up where it started. Lets suppose you are an NGO with rubble interfering with your efforts to deliver essential aid to some part of Haiti. How can you deal with this in the most economic manner? You could sub-contract with a Haitian, or Haitian-American company, which is already engaged in this kind of work, such as: Dump truck National Center of Equipment (CNE) company run by Presidential candidate Jude Celestin; Haiti Recovery Group, a Haitian-American company performing the largest demolition and debris clearing in Haiti, under contract to the Government of Haiti.

There is only one place in the country where it is legal to move the debris to, and space there is microscopic compared to the volume of the debris, which means most everyone who is moving it, moves it to some place where it is illegal to move it, such as someone elses land, or the drainage canals, guaranteeing the next heavy rain storm will endanger Haitian lives. It is not just rubble debris that is dumped someplace illegal, because theres total inadequacy of legal places to move it. If Haiti was inside the USA national borders, the whole nation of Haiti would have been declared an Environmental Superfund Disaster Area, thanks to a whole spectrum of Ecology-Hostile decision-making by most all Haitian stake-holders.23

Confused Perceptions (1 Jun 19)

There cannot be replacement housing until this rubble has been removed from potential rebuilding sites. A major barrier to resolving the rubble debris challenge is lack of clarity who owns the land24 on which the rubble debris needs to be removed from, or moved to. There is a UN report with statistics from past disasters, listing challenges facing Haitian recovery,25 but it is apparent that a major part of the problem is the failure of UN, Gov-ofHaiti, and NGOs, to coordinate crafting a coherent master plan solution, then jointly implement it. As of eight months after the Jan 10 earthquake, approx 2% of the debris from the demolished buildings had been disposed of. 26 At this rate, the task will take 33 years to complete. News-4 of Jacksonville Florida says theres 33m cubic yards of debris in Port au

Environmental Disaster area which Haiti has become. I explore land ownership and tenure challenges in my Haiti Land Own notes. 25 Debris fact sheet 2010 June (PDF) from UNDP. 26 Salamanca Press.
23 24

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Prince alone. This rubble, from the earthquake, does not include what will be added when damaged buildings get demolished. Some people have said27 that the appearance of piles of rubble along Haitian highways is misleading, because it gets trucked away, leaving space by side of road for other residents to dispose of rubble cluttering their property, so day after day when people see rubble there, it is not really the identical pile.

Leslie Voltaire Clarification (0 Oct 04)

Leslie Voltaire,28 a Haitian architect, urban planner and Presidential candidate, says his country needs a "rubble czar." Voltaire maintains that there are enough crushers, dump trucks and other heavy equipment for the job; others say that more machinery is needed. But everyone agrees that recovery will take decades - and the slower the rubble removal, the longer the recovery. When the US Inspector General audited USAID involvement in Cash for Work to Haitians to work on rubble clearing,29 one of the complaints was that instead of subcontracting to organizations which already had such equipment in Haiti, most of the money was spent transferring it between organizations.

Prime Minister Bellerive Clarification (0 Oct 04)

Haiti Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive quotes30 "One (U.S.) official said it would take a thousand trucks one thousand days to remove the rubble from the streets of Port-au-Prince. Haiti does not have a thousand trucks, and Haiti has not had one thousand days." Bellerive said plans to rebuild Haiti cannot move faster than funding for those projects, and that some progress was being blocked because the Haitian government does not control the disbursement of money pledged in the earthquake's aftermath.

Volunteer Entrepreneur Building (0 Sep 20)

Haiti has no building codes or standards. People enthusiastically build using whatever materials are at hand, which can include rubble into structures too fragile to survive next natural disaster. In response to my posting about this overall challenge, De-Mystifying Barriers to Haiti Recovery, in Building Housing Communities Group, Alan Scouten wrote Sep-30: QUOTE Catch Ambassador Holbrooke on Maddow Show two days ago. To paraphraseHaiti Rewired discussions. For more info on Leslie Voltaire, and other Presidential candidates, see Al Mac research documents on the Haiti 2010 election, and also on the Candidates not accepted by the election commission (CEP). 29 See research document Glossary of Housing challenges in Haiti for link to this audit report, and analysis of it. 30 Kansas City Com Sep 14.
27 28

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Haiti Earthquake Rubble Debris Challenges

"We cannot afford to help Pakistan rebuild. They will have to raise the taxes on their people." Disaster Fatigue? As any child of a poor family knows, you HAVE to figure-it-out, or else. Rubble and Land Tenure just more excuses from Viceroys and Governors. Rubble? If you can't clear it all, clear just enough space to raise your MD Shelter in its own footprint, and clear the rest as you can. If you can't move it, camp on top of it. Land Tenure? If you are squatting and are forced to move, disassemble your MD Shelter and move elsewhere.31 Set up again in the middle of the road, if you have to. It will get the Governor's attention. Intrusion? A door to lock in a wall secure?32 (In 1750, Conrad House cleared a spot in the Mohawk Valley woods, and built a House of plank & peg, so that he could move at a moment's notice. His neighbor, my other ancestor, Richard Elwood, built his House of stone, and stood guard) You are right, this is not just a Haiti problem. The World's Majorities... the Multi-colored Poor...are fast becoming a world of Nomads. Diaspora Disaster? Refugee Refusees. NIMBY. Anybody have a plan other than that in the Negev where if you aren't registered you are bulldozed? Not a million lives at stake in Haiti only, but millions more world wide. Why my neighbor is now packing-heat.... UNQUOTE

Rubble Disposal Choices (1 Jun 19)

The very first Blog I posted to Haiti Rewired listed suggested priorities for dealing with this.33 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------If it was up to me to decide priorities with earthquake rubble removal: 1. Roads blocked by debris, so that they can be used to deliver relief aid to everyone in need, and the economy can recover at grass roots level.

This idea does not work very effectively when thugs with clubs arrive in the middle of the night to beat up anyone who does not rapidly exit without taking anything with them. 32 This is obviously what is needed, but the UN GoH and NGO supplied shelters do not have this, instead the walls are usually made of tarpaulins, canvas, and wood. 33 http://haitirewired.wired.com/profiles/blogs/debris-removal-from-haiti
31

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Haiti Earthquake Rubble Debris Challenges

2. Drainage channels blocked by debris, so as to relieve the pressure of flooding where the people are. 3. Get Severe Weather Shelters implemented. 4. Replace damaged homes with safe homes, so as to relieve the pressures from over 2 million homeless. 5. Clear debris from agricultural land, so the farmers can resume their livelihoods. 6. Replace critical infrastructure with safe infrastructure, in which some priorities need to be set, what's most critical. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------If it was up to me to decide priorities doing what with removed earthquake rubble: 1. Raise elevation of roads which flood during rainy season, so they are usable during rainy seasons. 2. Set aside enough in each community that the municipal government, and elections, can select appropriate sites for national monuments to honor people who died in the quake, and for other reasons. 3. Recycle, what can be recycled, to use as construction materials in rebuilding Haiti, along with building codes that will lead to buildings that will survive future earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters. 4. Create sea walls off shore from major sea ports and coastal towns, which are designed to mitigate risks to them from future tropical storms. While something needs to be done to shore up hillsides to reduce landslide risks, I think the solution there is in planting vegetation, and supplying the people with access to alternatives to chopping down vegetation for firewood. Do we know what, if anything, is in fact being done with the debris from the buildings collapsed in the Jan 12 quake? I had thought the roads had been taken care of, except for the rainy season mud slides, but in one of the latest Situation Reports from UN NGO efforts, we learned: Top six priority roads for debris removal. Certain areas of the following roads are almost completely blocked:

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Haiti Earthquake Rubble Debris Challenges

1. Ave Magloire Ambroise, from Romain Street to Ruelle Cameau 2. Ave Pouplard, from Ruelle Chretien to St. Antoine 3. Ruelle Cameau, from Rue Magloire Ambroise to Mgr. Guilleau 4. Rue Oswald Durant, around Facult De Mdecine 5. Rue Dalencourt, from Canap Vert to Bourdon 6. Christ Roi, the entire length This is from 2010 April 17 PMCC Situation Report, which I can e-mail forward to contacts on request. PMCC = Project Management Coordination Cell Here's where I found it. (a) WASH discussion site http://groups.google.com/group/wash-response-haiti-2010?msg=new&lnk=gcis WASH = Water Sanitation Hygiene etc. You may need to join the group to access its resources (b) look at the discussion threads Find the one labeled "PMCC Update -- 17 Apr" From it you can download your own copy of the report They are called Daily Updates, but we only see one a week here If you do join any of the UN NGO groups, for the purpose of reading their reports, to see what they are up to, Courtesy reminder: We should refrain from using the contact information in UN NGO reports to actually contact those people unless we have something specific to help them with that is ready to be implemented RIGHT NOW. If our solution cannot be implemented, because of some need, such as transportation, money, whatever, we should say so up front. When we cross post these reports to some public or semi-public site, we should either cut out all such contact information, and/or include a reminder to people about this courtesy need. The relief workers on the ground are working 20+ hour days under frenetic conditions. They do not make the decisions regarding what they should be doing. When we have feedback regarding the NGO efforts, send them up Chain of HQ command.

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Haiti Earthquake Rubble Debris Challenges