As expected, Hurricane Tomas last week brought additional woe to Haiti, already struggling to deal with a series of disasters that would test the coping ability of a rich and highly developed nation. Haiti is neither, and it shows.
Tomas’ heavy rains wreaked havoc on an island that is so devoid of trees that landslides in hilly and mountainous areas and widespread flooding follow heavy rainstorms. The hurricane left tons of mud and torrents of filthy water in its wake, exacerbating already desperate conditions.
About a million Haitians are living in temporary tent communities. They’ve been there since last January’s major earthquake. The majority are in urban areas where little headway has been made in cleaning up the debris from the quake and where restoration of vital services — water, power, sewage, transportation, medical — remains more a dream than reality. Even before Tomas, the nasty conditions had spawned a major health problem.
Cholera, a debilitating and often fatal disease spread by contaminated food and water, was a growing presence in rural areas. In the wake of Tomas, more and more cases are appearing in Port-au-Prince, the heavily urban Haitian capital. Health officials say the unsanitary conditions in the city are speeding the spread of the disease.
That’s bad news for a country where medical care remains primitive for the most part. “Cholera is a complex public health emergency under any circumstances,” said an official of the Pan American Health Organization. “In Haiti, the hemisphere’s poorest country, the problem is even more complex.” What he left unsaid is that the country will be unable to cope with what is likely to be a widespread outbreak of the disease.
There are a large number of aid groups and volunteer medical groups — including some from the Chattanooga area — presently working in Haiti. Their effort, though, is more a holding action than a sturdy defense against the incursions of cholera and other diseases. Money is not always an answer to problems of this sort, but in this instance it certainly could help.
The United States, other nations, groups and individuals pledged billions in assistance to Haiti following the quake. Some has been delivered, but much has not. If the bureaucratic and political bottlenecks that currently bar efficient distribution of aid to Haiti are not removed soon, an already dire situation could quickly mushroom into a humanitarian disaster of immense scale.