Four Years On: Post-Earthquake Facts and Figures 

All information supplied courtesy of Amnesty International

Haiti: Displaced people still leave in despair four years after devastating earthquake. Here are some essential figures.

The 12 January 2010 earthquake

• 200,000 people dead
• 2.3 million homeless
• 105,000 houses destroyed; 208,164 houses badly damaged
• 1,550,000 people internally displaced and gathered in 1,555 spontaneous camps
• 600,000 people left quake-affected areas for other parts of the country

The current internally displaced population

• 171,974 (about 45,280 families) living in 306 camps (as of 30 September 2013, International Organization for Migration (IOM) figures). This figure does not include the 52,926 people estimated to be living in the settlements of Canaan (31,156), Jerusalem (21,745) and Onaville (11,477). Many of the people living in these settlements are internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Forced evictions

• 16,116 families have been evicted from 177 camps (July 2010 – September 2013, IOM figures).
• 4.45% of IDP households have been evicted or 11.38% of IDP camps closed following a forced eviction (IOM, September 2013)
• Approximately 78,000 individuals (about 45% of the total number of IDPs currently living in camps) still under threat of eviction (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – OCHA, December 2013).

Living conditions in camps

• 26 camps (8%) have water provided on the premises (IOM, October 2013)
• Only 54% of IDP camps (or 166 sites) have latrines. The average number of people per latrine stands at 114 (IOM October 2013)Open defecation was reported in 118 camps in September 2013 (National Directorate for Water Supply and Sanitation – DINEPA, September 2013)
• Only 11 camps have waste management services, covering 4% of the camp population (IOM)
• Only 4% of the camps are constituted of transitional shelters (IOM)
• 79,173 people in 67 camps are considered to be at particularly high risk of flooding (OCHA, December 2013)

Relocation/Housing solutions adopted

• 113,595 internally displaced households have been resettled in transitional shelters (Emergency Shelter and Camp Coordination Camp Management Cluster, October 2013)
• 54,758 households have been relocated through rental subsidies programmes (E-shelter/CCCM Cluster, October 2013)

Cholera (outbreak started in October 2010)

• A total of 696,922 suspected cases of cholera and 8,531 deaths (as of 4 January 2014, Haitian Ministry of Health).
• 45,000 new cases are anticipated during 2014 (Haitian Ministry of Health)

Housing issues before the earthquake

• 700,000 units – Haiti’s housing deficit at national level
• 67 per cent of the urban population lived in spontaneous settlements that covered only 22 per cent of inhabited land (1997 study). Half of the slums located on steep slopes or at the bottom of gullies; inner-city and coastal slums are also exposed to floods as they are located close to catchment areas. It was in these precarious neighbourhoods, where 80 per cent of the urban population lived, that the destruction caused by the earthquake was most extensive and severe, exacerbating the pre-existing housing crisis.