The Haiti reconstruction panel co-chaired by Bill Clinton announced a major new project yesterday to rebuild part of the capital damaged by last year’s earthquake, the Associated Press reports.
The Interim Haiti Recovery Commission said it plans to spend $78 million to revitalize 16 neighborhoods and remove 30,000 people from six major settlement camps that formed after the January 2010 disaster.
The commission said the project aims to move the 5,239 families living in six particularly vulnerable camps back into the 16 Port-au-Prince neighborhoods where most of them lived before the quake.
“This kind of collaboration will generate the lasting change, the permanent housing solutions that Haitians are depending on,’’ Clinton said in a speech after the commission’s announcement.
He said the project would generate about 4,500 jobs.
President Michel Martelly and his staff identified encampments they found are most in need of help before presenting the project to the recovery commission board, which approved it this week.
Much of the money for the relocation project will come from the Haiti Reconstruction Fund, set up by donor nations, and the United Nations.
Martelly also urged international donors who pledged a total of $5.5 billion to support Haiti’s recovery efforts to fulfill their pledges quickly.
For the original report go to http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2011/08/19/panel_unveils_haiti_rebuilding_project/
