An earthquake of magnitude 7.0 – its worst for two hundred years – struck Haiti on Tuesday 12th January. Its epicentre was close to the capital Port-au-Prince and caused thousands of deaths, made hundreds of thousands homeless, devastated already poor infrastructure, and brought confusion, communication breakdown and chaos for the country’s 9 million residents. Aftershocks followed, including one of magnitude 5.9 on 20th January.

RTPI Members were in touch with the Institute immediately to find out how they could help. Current attention is focused on sympathy for the victims and interest in the relief effort. But good urban planning will be key to Haiti's recovery and its long term future.

[ Photo above by courtesy of the UNDP ]

Immediate help

At first, money is the single most important resource.  It needs to be channelled through organisations with wide experience of this type of disaster relief, already present in the country, familiar with the territory and well-connected with local organisations and agencies. In the UK, the appropriate channel is the Disasters Emergency Committee representing the 13 major relief agencies. Collecting and offering goods is not necessary as they have to be transported (which takes time, money and effort) and the receiving infrastructure is damaged so it would just place extra strain on already desperately over-stretched facilities.

Volunteering

Demand for volunteers in the first phase of disaster relief is limited. As the Centre for International Disaster Information put it:

"Volunteers without prior disaster relief experience are generally not selected for relief assignments. Candidates with the greatest chance of being selected have fluency in the language of the disaster-stricken area, prior disaster relief experience, and expertise in technical fields such as medicine, communications logistics, water/sanitation engineering. In many cases, these professionals are already available in-country.

"Most agencies will require at least ten years of experience, as well as several years of experience working overseas. It is not unusual to request that volunteers make a commitment to spend at least three months working on a particular disaster. Most offers of another body to drive trucks, set up tents, and feed children are not accepted. Keep in mind that once a relief agency accepts a volunteer, they are responsible for the volunteer's well-being - i.e. food, shelter, health and security. Resources are strained during a disaster, and another person without the necessary technical skills and experience can often be a considerable burden to an ongoing relief effort."

As the immediate disaster relief operations begin to move towards longer term planning and reconstruction, there is clearly a need for more urban planning skills within Haiti. If you do indeed have the requisite experience and skills you can offer help via the existing action registers for built-environment professionals:

• Built Environment Action Register
• Engineers without Borders
• RedR
• Architecture for Humanity
• Architecture Sans Frontieres UK
• BuildAction

EWB and RedR also run training courses and publish helpful advice for people who do not (yet) have the skills but would like to obtain them so that they could volunteer at some point in the future. There is useful background and advice in the Article 25 Humanitarian and Development Career Information Pack.

Building Back Better

For planning professionals, the emphasis will be on the recovery phase after the immediate relief work: “building back better” by working on structures and infrastructure which is resilient and reduces to the risk to the population.  

Richard Gill FRTPI, President of the Barbados Town & Country Planning Society, has written to RTPI that “planning for recovery involves maintaining the basic road network (but taking the opportunity to upgrade key roads to accommodate future improvements); replacing/upgrading basic water and electricity infrastructure, providing immediate areas for markets and other informal trading; providing materials and on-site advice for early self-help reconstruction by families & small communities; a focus for continuing governance.” He also notes that other countries in the Caribbean will rally round as they always do, but that the scale of the disaster is such that help will also have to come from much further afield, especially in providing long term shelter through the co-ordination of many reconstruction projects using appropriate standards.

[ Photo above by courtesy of UN Photo/Logan Abassi ]

RTPI is already involved with other professional institutes in advocating a coordinated approach to relief agencies to make them aware of the need for a longer-term perspective.

The publication 'Built Environment Professions in Disaster Risk Reduction and Response' published last year as a joint effort between RTPI, RICS, RIBA and ICE, explains the roles of the professions in stages after disaster and through to disaster mitigation and prevention.

The foreword to the book was written by Brendan Gormley, Chief Executive of the Disasters Emergency Committee. The sponsoring institutes are committed to following up his support by working with DEC trustees and the UN Shelter Cluster on guidelines for long-term reconstruction and risk reduction. While the media is focused on the relief effort (both positive and negative aspects), we will keep emphasising the need for building back better and disaster risk reduction.

Round-up from other planning organisations

The International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISoCaRP) hopes to offer technical assistance through agencies and donors already active in the post-disaster effort and will be inviting members with experience in relevant fields (disaster management, planning for reconstruction, emergency shelter provision, slum upgrading, livelihood rehabilitation and capacity building/institutional strengthening). Experience in developing countries would be an asset. Volunteers would donate a week of time and travel and accommodation costs would be covered by sponsors. More information will be posted as we get it.

The French planners’ society SFU is mobilising its members in the Caribbean, offering aid from spatial planners, for both relief in the short term and longer term recovery.  More information will follow as we receive it.

Information sources

• RTPI helped to set up the Development from Disasters Network, and its website is an excellent and constantly updated source of information, news and comment. The website is managed by the Max Lock Centre at the School of the Built Environment, University of Westminster;
• Centre for Development and Emergency Practice, Oxford Brookes School of Architecture;
• Shelter Centre, University of Cambridge

Article round-up

Flawed building techniques were a major element in the Haiti disaster. Read more  

If we learn from that avoidable mistake, investing now will save lives in future. Read more

Every day since the earthquake, a group of 50 Haiti built environment specialists has met to work out ways to rebuild their country. Read more  

How do others think it might be re-built? Can the experience of rebuilding after other disasters help Haiti? Read more 

Comparing satellite imagery can help to identify physical changes in the damaged country and assist rescue workers. That same sort of imagery could play a similar role for planners. Read more

Raymond Joseph, Haitian ambassador to the USA, believes Port-au-Prince could be rebuilt with a smaller footprint. A better city could replace the teeming, chaotic and shoddily-built sprawl of almost 3 million people devastated by the earthquake. But experts round the world think he is over-optimistic about what can be achieved, and contrast it with other rebuilding stories. Read more

We will be updating this webpage as reconstruction efforts are co-ordinated. If you have further information or links that you feel RTPI members would benefit from, please email us.

Author:

Judith Eversley

Publisher:

The Royal Town Planning Institute

Date:

04-Feb-10

Categories:

 

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