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Race against time to get fresh water to Haiti survivors
• Up to 200,000 are feared dead
• Obama promises 'sustained help'
Aid agencies and the US military are engaged in a desperate race to provide earthquake-devastated Haitians with enough clean water to stave off the threat of dehydration and massive outbreaks of waterborne diseases.
With hundreds of thousands living on the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, following a catastrophe in which as many as 200,000 may have died, the shortage of clean water was emerging as the new focus of the unfolding disaster.
The latest estimates for the death toll would make it one of the 10 deadliest earthquakes in history. The body of the UN misson chief in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, was found in the rubble of his headquarters. UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon also confirmed the death of Annabi's deputy, Luiz Carlos da Costa. Annabi, a Tunisian diplomat, was "a true citizen of the world", said Ki-moon, who called Brazilian Da Costa "a legend in UN peacekeeping operations". Nearly 100 UN staff are still unaccounted for.
The scope of the disaster prompted President Barack Obama – flanked by his predecessors, George W Bush and Bill Clinton – to pledge one of the largest relief efforts in US history and to promise that "sustained help" on its way.
His comments came as Washington acknowledged the limits of its initial relief efforts and promised to speed delivery of water and other essential supplies. Hillary Clinton arrived in Haiti to assess the damage. Speaking at Port-au-Prince airport alongside the Haitian president, René Préval, the US secretary of state said America would be on hand "today, tomorrow and for the time ahead".
Clinton said the US aid drive – involving thousands of soldiers, sailors and Marines along with civilian aid workers – was done at Haiti's invitation and that she and Préval would issue a joint statement outlining the way forward.
As the sound of aircraft bearing relief supplies momentarily drowned out the microphone, Clinton said: "That's a good sound. That means good things are coming and helping the people of Haiti." Clinton was due to evacuate around 50 US citizens when she finished her brief one-day trip designed to avoid complicating the huge relief effort.
With concern rising over the risk of disease, trucks piled with corpses have been carrying bodies to mass graves outside the city. Thousands of bodies are believed to be still buried beneath rubble. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are living under homemade tents of plastic sheets, with no evident supplies of food. Families are dependent on water bought on the streets at inflated prices.
An aftershock of magnitude 4.5 sent rescuers scurrying from dangerous areas. They later returned to continue searching for survivors. Fuel is also running perilously low, with just three petrol stations in the city open.
The scale of the catastrophe was underlined by the efforts to clear the streets of the dead. "We have already collected around 20,000 dead bodies," the interior minister, Paul Antoine Bien-Aimé, said. "We anticipate there will be between 100,000 and 200,000 dead in total, although we will never know the exact number."
Another concern has been the problem of security, exacerbated by anger at the apparently slow pace of the relief effort. "There have been incidents of people looting or fighting for food. They are desperate, they have been three days without food or any assistance," the UN peacekeeping chief, Alain Le Roy, said.
Four US ships carrying desalination equipment capable of producing up to 25,000 litres of water a day will not arrive for several days. The USS Carl Vinson, an aircraft carrier already at the scene, can produce 35,000 litres a day. But the challenge is how to get the water to survivors. Stephanie Bunker, of the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in New York, said: "Some bottled water is en route but it is a very small amount. There has also been some distribution of purification tablets. Water is water. You can't last long without it."
Concern over shortages is driving plans by the Haitian government to set up around 14 camps where shelter and water will be provided as well as latrines, but this could take days to organise.
President Préval criticised the lack of co-ordination of the relief effort, adding that 74 planes had arrived at Port-au-Prince's overwhelmed airport in a single day. "We must keep our cool and not throw accusations at each other," he said after a French minister complained that US controllers had turned away two French relief flights.
Haiti
Natural disasters and extreme weather
Ed Pilkington
Peter Beaumont
guardian.co.uk Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
• Up to 200,000 are feared dead
• Obama promises 'sustained help'
Aid agencies and the US military are engaged in a desperate race to provide earthquake-devastated Haitians with enough clean water to stave off the threat of dehydration and massive outbreaks of waterborne diseases.
With hundreds of thousands living on the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, following a catastrophe in which as many as 200,000 may have died, the shortage of clean water was emerging as the new focus of the unfolding disaster.
The latest estimates for the death toll would make it one of the 10 deadliest earthquakes in history. The body of the UN misson chief in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, was found in the rubble of his headquarters. UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon also confirmed the death of Annabi's deputy, Luiz Carlos da Costa. Annabi, a Tunisian diplomat, was "a true citizen of the world", said Ki-moon, who called Brazilian Da Costa "a legend in UN peacekeeping operations". Nearly 100 UN staff are still unaccounted for.
The scope of the disaster prompted President Barack Obama – flanked by his predecessors, George W Bush and Bill Clinton – to pledge one of the largest relief efforts in US history and to promise that "sustained help" on its way.
His comments came as Washington acknowledged the limits of its initial relief efforts and promised to speed delivery of water and other essential supplies. Hillary Clinton arrived in Haiti to assess the damage. Speaking at Port-au-Prince airport alongside the Haitian president, René Préval, the US secretary of state said America would be on hand "today, tomorrow and for the time ahead".
Clinton said the US aid drive – involving thousands of soldiers, sailors and Marines along with civilian aid workers – was done at Haiti's invitation and that she and Préval would issue a joint statement outlining the way forward.
As the sound of aircraft bearing relief supplies momentarily drowned out the microphone, Clinton said: "That's a good sound. That means good things are coming and helping the people of Haiti." Clinton was due to evacuate around 50 US citizens when she finished her brief one-day trip designed to avoid complicating the huge relief effort.
With concern rising over the risk of disease, trucks piled with corpses have been carrying bodies to mass graves outside the city. Thousands of bodies are believed to be still buried beneath rubble. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are living under homemade tents of plastic sheets, with no evident supplies of food. Families are dependent on water bought on the streets at inflated prices.
An aftershock of magnitude 4.5 sent rescuers scurrying from dangerous areas. They later returned to continue searching for survivors. Fuel is also running perilously low, with just three petrol stations in the city open.
The scale of the catastrophe was underlined by the efforts to clear the streets of the dead. "We have already collected around 20,000 dead bodies," the interior minister, Paul Antoine Bien-Aimé, said. "We anticipate there will be between 100,000 and 200,000 dead in total, although we will never know the exact number."
Another concern has been the problem of security, exacerbated by anger at the apparently slow pace of the relief effort. "There have been incidents of people looting or fighting for food. They are desperate, they have been three days without food or any assistance," the UN peacekeeping chief, Alain Le Roy, said.
Four US ships carrying desalination equipment capable of producing up to 25,000 litres of water a day will not arrive for several days. The USS Carl Vinson, an aircraft carrier already at the scene, can produce 35,000 litres a day. But the challenge is how to get the water to survivors. Stephanie Bunker, of the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in New York, said: "Some bottled water is en route but it is a very small amount. There has also been some distribution of purification tablets. Water is water. You can't last long without it."
Concern over shortages is driving plans by the Haitian government to set up around 14 camps where shelter and water will be provided as well as latrines, but this could take days to organise.
President Préval criticised the lack of co-ordination of the relief effort, adding that 74 planes had arrived at Port-au-Prince's overwhelmed airport in a single day. "We must keep our cool and not throw accusations at each other," he said after a French minister complained that US controllers had turned away two French relief flights.
Haiti
Natural disasters and extreme weather
Ed Pilkington
Peter Beaumont
guardian.co.uk Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
