by Margaret Mair

Created on: January 29, 2010   Last Updated: February 02, 2010

We can already see the impact of Haiti’s long-lasting poverty on the ongoing efforts to help the country recover from the disastrous earthquake of January 12th.  The effects of such poverty run deep and spread wide.

Poverty has been at the root of a lack of infrastructure, the kind of infrastructure on which people rely when they try to provide aid to people in need.  What infrastructure already existed has been subject to a lack of development and maintenance.  

Both the amount and the condition of the energy and transportation systems, for instance, would have limited their use even before the earthquake took place.   As well, the state of the country’s infrastructure made it more susceptible to damage, and that damage created huge problems in both organizing and distributing aid.  The destruction at the airport, the ports and of the roads has made the delivery of aid extremely difficult.

Poverty also affects the condition of the communications infrastructure, such as the telephone system, and makes the communication systems both less widespread and more fragile.  Lack of good communications made it more difficult to find out where aid was most urgently needed, or where there were resources that those coming to or needing help could use - increasing the difficulty of coordinating an already extremely difficult task.

Poverty prevents both government and individuals from being prepared when disaster strikes, or having the tools to cope with it when it comes.   Even before the earthquake the Haitian government and people had little to help them deal with the widespread destruction it caused.  And it means that efforts to cope with the immediate aftermath relied on aid from outside, which had difficulty making its way into the country and to where it was needed.

Poverty also means that sanitation was inadequate and that many were already living in unsanitary conditions, conditions which grew worse after the earthquake struck, and which contributed to illness and death in the day following the earthquake.  

Over time the impact of the work done by so many helping hands will begin to make things better for those who survive this terrible ordeal; but there is little doubt that both the impact of the earthquake and the effectiveness of the first efforts to help were made more difficult by the poverty of the nation upon which the disaster was visited.

Learn more about this author, Margaret Mair.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.