Smaller
Bigger
Close Gallery
Santo Domingo.- Haiti Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said on Tuesday that the damages caused to his country by the January 12 quake total 15 billion dollars and rejected the opposition’s claim that Haiti’s Government isn’t doing anything to help the victims and for their country’s reconstruction.
"It’s not certain that nothing is being done,” said the Haiti Prime Minister, who represents his government in the Santo Domingo International Conference on Haiti, where 20 countries discuss plans to rebuild the neighboring country and how the money contributed will be used.
The earthquake practically destroyed Port au Prince, killing more than 230,000, serious injuries to more than half a million and direct and indirect damages in the billions of dollars, mainly on homes and businesses.
Facebook
Digg this
del.icio.us
Technorati
Yahoo
The Haiti Recovery Fund should be constituted for five years -- a suitable period to respond to such a challenge. Electoral politics in Haiti should be suspended for at least one year as well.
How much money would the Haiti Recovery Fund need? Before the earthquake, I had calculated an urgent (and unmet) development financing need of $1.4 billion per year for Haiti, up from about $300 million currently. Basic urgent reconstruction costs will add perhaps another $5 billion to $10 billion over the next few years. One can imagine annual disbursements of $2 billion to $3 billion annually over the next five years."
Jeffrey D. Sachs is the director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and the author of "Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet." Washington Post article.
S.