Haiti's recovery yet to reach population, Dominican president says

Jul 13, 2010, 18:36 GMT

Washington - Haiti's recovery from a devastating quake is 'very slow' and has not yet reached down to the Haitian population, Dominican President Leonel Fernandez said Tuesday in Washington.

The Dominican Republic shares with Haiti the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, although it was largely unaffected by the January 12 quake that killed more than 200,000 people in Haiti.

Fernandez said in a lecture at George Washington University that Haiti will need at least 10 years to recover from the quake. He met with US President Barack Obama on Monday.

Fernandez called the situation in the troubled nation a 'tragedy' even before the quake, and he noted how the disaster 'only aggravated' the plight of the poorest country in the Americas.

Fernandez said recovery has been so slow for two reasons. First, Haitian authorities were 'overwhelmed by the impact of this tragedy.'

'They were in a state of confusion, there were no institutional channels to deal with the beginning of this tragedy,' he noted.

In recent weeks, a bipartisan commission has been created that could change that, Fernandez said.

'We have a lot of hope that through this commission there will be an institutional channel to push forward the recovery process in Haiti,' he said.

Second, he noted, 'the international community has not fully delivered.' Only about 10 per cent of what was promised to Haiti has actually been sent, Fernandez stressed. And even that was channeled through non-governmental organizations and thus caused trouble for Haitian authorities.

'People hold the government accountable and the government has not had enough resources to really respond to people's needs,' Fernandez said.

For Fernandez, Haiti will need at least 10 billion dollars in aid over the coming decade. Full recovery, he stressed, should come from the creation of 'a more vibrant economy' which is better integrated in the world.

'All this takes time,' Fernandez admitted.