http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0819894320100208
Haiti studies Colombian town for quake rebuilding

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Haiti's interior minister on Monday toured a Colombian town rebuilt after a huge 1999 tremor as his own country considered plans to reconstruct its wrecked capital city after last month's devastating earthquake.

WORLD | NATURAL DISASTERS

Haiti says more than 200,000 people were killed in the January 12 earthquake that shattered much of Port-au-Prince and left over 1 million people homeless, either sleeping in the streets or in makeshift camps.

Haitian Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime visited Armenia in Colombia's coffee region, where a decade ago an earthquake killed at least 1,200 people, left tens of thousands homeless and destroyed 65 percent of the city's buildings.

That quake prompted what Colombia has termed a model reconstruction involving the creation of a public entity called FOREC to better coordinate and channel international, state and private reconstruction and donation efforts.

"What we are proposing is a kind of FOREC international where the reconstruction can be carried out just as the Haitian people want it, but with each country assigned a responsibility under a general plan," Colombian Interior Minister Fabio Valencia told reporters as he accompanied Bien-Aime.

The Colombian FOREC program won a United Nations prize for reconstruction.

The debate in Haiti on how to help those left homeless by the quake is becoming urgent with the approach of the country's rainy season in March when the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation is often battered by floods and landslides.

The Haitian minister said his government's three-part plan will move some of the 1 million homeless people out of the capital and help to allow others to stay near destroyed homes or in provisional shelters.

"We will move a part of the population that is now living in the streets of the capital," the minister said. "Secondly we will help the people in temporary shelters so they can protect themselves from the rain, and thirdly help people stay in their neighborhoods in the shelters where they are now."

Haiti's disaster, which toppled part of the presidential palace, the Congress and many ministry buildings, has opened discussion over how to reconstruct the capital as experts warn about the dangers of another earthquake hitting the city.

"The decisions on reconstruction have not been completely defined," Haiti's minister said. "We know we are going to empty Port-au-Prince partly and take people to other areas. But we can't say we are going to shift the capital completely."

a suivre....

Armenia Colombia:

Thanks for the photo references Pichardo....makes it easier to discuss the feasability of PAP's reconstruction.

I hope they rebuild Haiti to that stature, its time we implement laws, rebuild and snap into the future

Let me enter this thread . here is a website http://www.unesco-ipred.org/ This group might be in Haiti right now to discuss on better building codes in Haiti.

personally i would like for us to have our own stamp on the architectural details. the pictures blah. the building codes/standards is what's important to me.

fantasma - 09 February 2010 06:37 AM

personally i would like for us to have our own stamp on the architectural details. the pictures blah. the building codes/standards is what's important to me.

The thing I'm worried about it is not many people have the money to build back their homes and businesses properly. It's going to be a long, hard recovery.

BENZ - 09 February 2010 07:25 AM

fantasma - 09 February 2010 06:37 AM

personally i would like for us to have our own stamp on the architectural details. the pictures blah. the building codes/standards is what's important to me.

The thing I'm worried about it is not many people have the money to build back their homes and businesses properly. It's going to be a long, hard recovery.

i'm worried about the rainy season and those that are living in tent cities.

BENZ - 09 February 2010 07:25 AM

fantasma - 09 February 2010 06:37 AM

personally i would like for us to have our own stamp on the architectural details. the pictures blah. the building codes/standards is what's important to me.

The thing I'm worried about it is not many people have the money to build back their homes and businesses properly. It's going to be a long, hard recovery.

That's why I believe the best thing to do is to jumpstart agriculture. Give people incentive to go back to the countryside. This will help destabilize everything from port au prince. L'artibonite, Jeremie, Les Cayes, Cap Ayisyen should all be important points of agriculture and down the line tourism. Get Jacmel back on the coffee exportation map. Of course, there must be laws to prevent random shantytowns being developed in the countryside, but in reality we just want a government that will help haitians find jobs. The key to the rebuilding stage is giving haitians jobs which will help them build mother nature friendly homes.

Jesus Christ - 09 February 2010 12:58 AM

I don't see anything special in the pictures......what? they rebuilt with better earthquake standards???

I agree. Nothing that make you go "wow" the last 3 pictures look like modernized version of the bidonviles in Canape-Vert.

It all starts with infrastructure of which the DR has made major investments over the last 40 years.

The DR has a huge advantage in that it is not bogged down with thousands of NGO leaches.

In Haiti, it's the DR replacing and restoring power lines from the Peligre Dam which is unharmed from the quake.

Funny thing, engineers who have visited Peligre make no mention about the supposed $50 million USD reconstruction project that was "supposed" to have started last March 2009.

and so it goes....