The National Disaster Risk Management System (SNGRD) formally rules out the development of large accommodation camps in urban centers, a strategy that proved unmanageable after the earthquake of 12 January 2010.

Tents, tarpaulins or other provisional shelter arrangements may only be installed in the affected houses courtyards in rural areas, and exceptionally in the residential areas of affected families, and when the space is lacking in urban centers, for example.

For this reason, the rubble clearing operations, already initiated, will be carried out as the search and rescue actions are completed. This solution is all the more justified since 80% of the population of the three departments concerned, the South, Grand'Anse and Nippes, live on average in rural areas where the density does not exceed 220 inhabitants per square kilometer.

The Government and Civil Protection structures are committed to supporting the population, assisting them by taking into account their most urgent needs, including and above all the need for shelter. However, the solutions adopted must not create new risks, nor worsen the precariousness of the affected populations over time.

IH/ iciHaiti