Limiting the impact of disasters and fighting food insecurity in the countryside

The earthquake that shook Haiti on January 12th 2010 was mostly perceived as an urban devastation. Whilst the most important destructions were observed in the cities of Port-au-Prince, Carrefour, Leogane or Jacmel, the tremor also impacted rural areas. Gigantic population displacements from the capital to the countryside were registered, greatly destabilizing the farmland that has been chronically weakened since 2008 with Hurricanes Gustav, Hannah, Ike and Jeanne and by soaring food prices.

Reconstructing city and countryside

ACTED is engaged in Haiti’s long-term reconstruction of the country, in the city and countryside, by building temporary housings and rehabilitating damaged houses. The reconstruction of Haiti also implies support to the rural environment that represents 60 % of the country’s population and that was badly shaken up by the impact of population displacements following the earthquake, the cholera outbreak and the destructions caused by Hurricane Tomas. In Leogane, the heavy winds and rains of Hurricane Tomas wiped out the pea and banana cultures that represent the main diet of the peasants of these mountainous areas.

A Cash for Work programme was launched in order to rapidly inject cash into the affected communities. The purpose was to improve soil preservation. Indeed, due to chronic rural poverty and to high demographic pressures that characterize the Haitian countryside with population densities of 250 to 350 inhabitants per square kilometer, thousands of hectares of land, sometimes unsuitable for agriculture, are deforested and cultivated. From then on, when heavy rains or hurricanes like Hurricane Tomas occur, the impoverished mountainous lands do not have the capacity to retain the waters and are almost instantly drained and washed away. The fertile arable land is dragged into the rivers, then massive tides flood the downstream areas. Landslides are also very frequent, leading to the disappearance of agricultural lands and the cutting of access roads.

Land maintenance is primordial

Nonetheless, the preservation of soils is a simple and inexpensive practice to put into place: by digging canals alongside the agricultural lands, parallel to the slope, and by planting vegetation strips of reeds or vetivers, the soils rapidly recover their fertility and the impact of heavy rains is considerably limited. In fact, waters are canalized. Nutrients can therefore remain in the soils, stabilized by the plant cover, and prevents mountainous agricultural lands from collapsing.

Raising population awareness on risks

Just like a hurricane, an earthquake is a natural disaster whose impact can be limited with prevention and education. In the mountainous areas of Leogane, the inhabitants had to go through these two tragic events in 2010. Many human and material losses could have been avoided thanks to enhanced understanding of these phenomena and to extensive knowledge on existing safety methods. In this perspective, ACTED is currently implementing an awareness programme and trainings on disaster risk reduction specifically in these regions. In a participative way, the beneficiaries of this programme learn why and how hurricanes are born, what an earthquake is, how you can protect yourself from such disasters before they take place and the sustainable means to fight against their negative consequences. Therefore, village hazard maps are drawn to identify real and potential risks.

Through strengthening the response and reactivity capacities of most vulnerable populations, ACTED uses all the means available to make sure that what happened in 2010 will not happen again. This is also part of the reconstruction process of Haiti.