22069: Arthur: Fw: Haiti: Lethal mudslides highlight urgent need for reforestation, agrarian reform (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Max Blanchet <MaxBlanchet@worldnet.att.net>
----- Original Message -----
From: <Tttnhm@aol.com>



Lethal mudslides highlight urgent need for reforestation, and agrarian
reform
- Haiti Support Group press release, 26 May 2004

Hundreds of people have been killed by mudslides and flash foods in the
border region around Malpasse, Fond Verettes, Thiotte and Grand Gosier. In
Fond
Verettes around 160 people died as a flash flood scoured a section of town
half a
mile long and 1,000 feet wide. At least 540 houses were destroyed or buried,
and another 1,500 were damaged, according to a UN official.

Relief workers say that about 50 of the 135 or so people killed on the
Dominican side of the border were thought to be Haitian black-market traders
camped
out in the town of Jimani.

Heavy rain has been falling in parts of Haiti for weeks. The whole south of
the country has been more or less cut off from the capital, Port-au-Prince,
the
centre and the north, for several weeks after the Acul River burst its banks
and carried away the only road at the town of Léogâne.

In September 1998, Hurricane Georges brought flooding and mudslides that
claimed many lives and considerable damage to agricultural land in the
centre of
the country. In December 2003, a number of people died and around 34,0000
people were evacuated following flooding in the regions around the northern
towns
of Cap-Haïtien and Port-de-Paix.

These recurring natural disasters highlight the need to address the very
serious problem of deforestation in Haiti. It is estimated that tree cover
in the
country is less than two per cent. Without trees, the top soil is washed
away
and erosion leaves bare rocks on the mountainsides. When there is heavy
rain,
the water cannot be absorbed and so cascades down hillsides sweeping away
everything in its path.

Effective reforestation programmes are absolutely essential in Haiti. For
such programmes to be effective they need to be implemented as part of an
extensive agrarian reform in order to relieve pressure on farm land, and, in
particular, to provide alternatives to charcoal production.

The Haiti Support Group believes that a reforestation/agrarian reform
strategy, and not free trade zone expansion, should be at the heart of
development
plans in Haiti.

______________________________________________

This email is forwarded as a service of the Haiti Support Group.

See the Haiti Support Group web site:
www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org

Solidarity with the Haitian people's struggle for justice, participatory
democracy and equitable development, since 1992.
____________________________________________