Causes and effects haiti living conditions essay

Causes and effects of the decrease of living conditions in Haiti The deforestation of Haiti is one of the causes leading to the decrease of living conditions in Haiti. As Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the Americas, the Haitians routinely cut down the trees to burn them or turn them into charcoal and sell this. (National geographic daily news, 2010) Due to this, Haiti became one of the most deforested countries in the world. (Country studies, 2011) Between 1990 and 2010, Haiti lost an average of 750 ha, which is 0.

65% per year. Haiti lost 12. 9% of its forest cover, or around 15, 000 ha in total in these 20 years. (Mongobay Haiti deforestation data, 2010). This deforestation ensures that soil looses moist of its water-holding capacity and therefore makes Haiti even more vulnerable for flash floods and frequent mudslides caused by heavy rain from tropical storms and hurricanes. The tsunami caused high amount of rubble and with this belongings flooded away.

Unclear property rights and lack of land titles complicated shelter recovery efforts (UNHCR, UNAID 2010). The distressed economy of Haiti is one of the reasons why 80% of the population lives in poverty. Haiti is the poorest nation of America, having a GDP of $12.

44 billion. (CIA world Factbook, 2010) Being this underprivileged results in a low infrastructure. (USAID) Next to this, due to the poorness parents can not afford the costs of education of their children and let them stay at home to help them with manual labour. Private schools are the only schools in Haiti and very few families can afford even the most modest tuition. (Haiti Education Foundation, 2012)The Haitians, humanitarian aid workers and many others are afraid that funds given by humanitarian organisations will end up in the pockets of the politicians. Transparency International, a group that studies government corruption, rates Haiti’s government as one of the world’s most corrupt and least effective, despite efforts by President Rene Preval to combat this chronically problem. (Reuters, 2010) Next to this, the minister had met with foreign leaders after the tsunami, he also spoke with international press but did not address the Haitian people.

CBC, 2010) The UN was already questioning the fraud in the final results of the legislative nations which raised serious concerns, confirming questions of Haitians about the governments legitimacy. Next to this, international donors are waiting for a new government before they release billions of dollars to help Haiti overcome its deep poverty, earthquake-shattered infrastructure and cholera epidemic. (UN, AP, AFP 2011) This not effective government makes it even worse for Haiti, as there is no visible leader to fix the problems and take the lead in coordinating the IGO’s and NGO’s. UN, 2010) The decrease of the agricultural productivity results in a high level of unemployment. This decrease is caused by the soil erosion which lowered the productivity of the land and worsened droughts. This eventually leads to desertification and increases the pressure on the remaining land and trees.

(country studies, 2012) According to the CIA world Factbook the labour force of agriculture is 38. 1 in Haiti, measured in 2010. 66% of all Haitians are depending on the agricultural sector, entailing mainly small-scale farming. (CIA world factbook, 2010)Due to the tsunami, roads are so filled with rubble that building materials cannot be transported, next to this everything is flooded away by the tsunami and therefore building materials are damaged or even unusable.

This causes a slow rebuilding of the houses of people and school buildings. The buildings flooded away leaving 2. 3 million people homeless.

(UN, 2010) The level of teachers in Haiti was already low before the tsunami, this, combined with the loss of school buildings is resulting in a low educational level. The enrolment rate for the primary school is 67%, less than 30% of these reach the 6th grade. Julia Project, 2012) Due to this, the illiteracy percentage is 51% (UNICEF). Another result of the low level of teachers and the illiteracy in Haiti is the low awareness of hygiene and sanitation. This lack of hygiene caused the cholera outbreak, reporting over 470, 00 cases and 6, 631 attributable deaths.

(CDC, 2011) Haitians are living in constant fear and stress, grieving the loss of their homes, their families and their spouses. These losses need to be processed as they caused a trauma for each Haitian. ( Allvoices, 2010)