Washington — The goal for Haiti’s reconstruction after its devastating January 12, 2010, earthquake has been to “build back better” and provide the Haitian people with the infrastructure for sustained economic growth, greater agricultural output and good governance. This could never be accomplished in two years, says Thomas Adams, the U.S. special coordinator for Haiti, but, nevertheless, real progress is already being made and the Haitian people are seeing changes for the better.
As Haitians and the international community mark the second anniversary of the earthquake and reflect on the cholera epidemic and hurricane that brought even more tragedy to their people, very recent and tangible developments are pointing toward a better future. After a free election, the new government, led by President Michel Martelly, formed in October 2011. For the first time in 25 years, Haiti will have all three branches of its government functioning, with the authority to make key decisions and remove many roadblocks that have been standing in the way of the reconstruction effort.
In March, the country will see the opening of the Caracol Industrial Park, with the potential to create 65,000 jobs, provide new housing and spur the creation of nearby small businesses.
“We’re starting to get new traction,” Adams said. “Haitians are taking ownership of their reconstruction.”
“Would we like to go faster? Of course we would,” he said. “But the reality is Haiti is not going to be fixed in two years. It’s going to take 10 years of intensive work by donors and the government of Haiti to get the place growing consistently, in terms of annual economic growth.”
It is now easier to address the needs of Haitians who have remained homeless since the earthquake. The United States has helped in the interim period by providing nearly 30,000 plywood-and-concrete temporary shelters to protect families who had been living in tents from hurricanes and earthquakes, but Adams said there had been real problems in obtaining the land for more permanent housing. Having the new government in place will help.
“There are certain decisions only a government can make, such as to use eminent domain to get land and to authorize the destruction of unsafe buildings,” he said. There is also a voucher program in place that allows homeowners with repairable property to use certified Haitian construction companies to rebuild their homes up to required safety standards for earthquakes and hurricanes.
The Martelly government “is much more engaged,” he said. “They want to do it right — not force people off land because they’re tired of having them on public squares,” but to ask them where they lived before and what is preventing them from going back, and even offering to pay the first year of rent if that is preventing them from leaving.
“It takes time to do it right,” he said. “We do want this to be a Haitian-led reconstruction … and sometimes we just have to wait for the Haitians to lead because it’s their country. We can help, but they have to really make the key decisions and do a lot of the work.”
The most immediate change that visitors to the capital Port-au-Prince will notice today is the amount of rubble that has been removed, Adams said. The earthquake created an estimated 10 million cubic meters of rubble. Put another way, if dump trucks packed with that amount of rubble were parked end to end, they would stretch more than 6,000 kilometers. But the United States has funded more than half of the removal of 5 million cubic meters of rubble, of which 30 to 40 percent is being recycled into new construction. That means better access for traffic and equipment, and space for new housing.
Adams said much of the remaining rubble actually consists of condemned and unsafe houses that landlords insist are valuable. With the new government in place, decisions over the fate of those properties can now be made.
Every poll of the Haitian people says that what they want most are jobs, and the United States has been helping with big investments in agriculture and the development of the Caracol Industrial Park. Adams said 60 percent of Haitians live on farms, but agricultural production has been stagnant in Haiti for nearly 40 years.
It takes time to convince farmers to adopt new practices, such as abandoning traditional rice paddies in favor of planting dried grains and watering them. But as more have the courage to try new U.S. and internationally funded techniques and technologies to get higher yields, “they can, with fairly modest inputs, double or triple their income and really raise their activity,” he said.
The new industrial park’s anchor tenant will be Sae-A, Korea’s largest apparel manufacturer, which has committed to create 20,000 jobs and invest $78 million over six years. Adams said the initiative will “really restore the textile industry.” The United States has been active not only in working to find investors for the park, but also preparing the site by doing environmental studies and by supplying electricity, water, housing, police stations and other community needs.
The commitment to “build back better” reflects the poor state of Haiti’s infrastructure and government, which existed even before the earthquake struck.
“When people say we’ve got to build Haiti back to what it was before the earthquake, that’s a pretty low barrier,” Adams said. “We don’t want a country where half of school-age kids don’t go to school, where half the population is illiterate, with the worst malnutrition in the hemisphere and the worst income disparities.”
The reconstruction of Haiti has been slower than many on the outside have expected because of the need to get important elements in place first, such as the government, the industrial park and other projects.
“That this would be ‘lickety-split’ is kind of unrealistic,” Adams said. “We’re always pushing against that.” But with good economic decisions, good governance and stability, and by maintaining good working relations with Haiti’s donor communities, the country “could become a middle-income country like the Dominican Republic next door in 20 or 30 years,” he said.