A month after the last tropical storms and hurricanes hit Haiti, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical teams have found an entire village completely submerged and its 2400 remaining inhabitants stranded without help.

Photo : MSF

On Tuesday, September 30, MSF teams managed to reach Mamont, a town southeast of Gonaïves that was heavily affected by the storms that struck Haiti in August and September. The town, with an original population of about 17,000 people, had been totally isolated for the last four weeks.

MSF teams found the village partially submerged in water spilling over from a lake created by the storms. The remaining population is cut from all major towns, since the road is also submerged. The survivors have been without clean water, sufficient food or medical care for weeks.

MSF is currently providing assistance to the people who remained in Mamont and calls for other organizations to assist as quickly as possible. Although international attention has largely moved on from the emergency in Haiti, the situation in Mamont shows that emergency assistance remains critical for some parts of the country.

In the Gonaïves area, concrete measures for getting the victims of the storms back on their feet are slow to materialize. There remains a lack of access to clean water, problems with sanitation, and a shortage of basic goods.

There is the risk of diseases spreading and MSF is worried about the repeated expulsions of displaced people from places where they found temporary shelter. For several days the authorities have been pushing for the evacuation of classrooms before the start of the new school term on Monday, October 6. The situation is similar in churches, where congregations are pushing those sheltering inside to leave.

The cathedral in Gonaïves, where more then 200 people found refuge, was emptied two weeks ago. Some of the displaced people moved to a camp in Praville, where conditions are unacceptable. In the area of K-Soleil, more than 800 people were evicted from their shelters and were forced to camp in their ravaged houses or sleep under pieces of cardboard.

Some 500 people were asked to leave the Church of the Christian Union and had to relocate to the university, where over 200 of them remain without even minimal hygiene facilities. The Parc Vincent area, heavily affected by the disaster, is gradually being cleaned up, and large numbers of families will soon find themselves with no choice but to sleep in the street after being forced out of shelters.

Today, hundreds of families are left without a place to stay and without any means to rebuild their lives, as neither the authorities nor international organizations present in Gonaïves have provided alternative shelter.

MSF emergency intervention in Haiti

MSF recently opened an 80-bed hospital in the north of Gonaïves in collaboration with the Health and Population Ministry. This facility is the only one in the region that can respond to emergencies and provide obstetric and pediatric services in this town of 300,000 inhabitants, devastated by the recent storms.

During the first five days, the hospital received 108 patients in the emergency room and performed 19 deliveries, as well as nine surgeries. In total 40 people have been hospitalized.

MSF is also improving access to drinking water for the population, but the situation remains precarious in Gonaïves. Every three days, the team chlorinates one million litres of water and together with other organizations they distribute 350,000 litres to the communities.

Since September 8, MSF has distributed more than 5.7 million litres. This represents the largest part of the water that has been distributed. MSF aims to produce one million litres of water a day.

Mobile medical teams continue to travel by car around Gonaïves and by helicopter to the surrounding area to provide assistance to the most vulnerable people in temporary shelters or in nearby isolated villages. Since September 12, MSF teams have performed more than 1150 consultations through mobile clinics.

After performing 2326 consultations in 20 days, MSF left the Raboteau health center in Gonaïves last week; it is now fully managed by the Health and Population Ministry.

MSF has also assessed needs in the northwest of Haiti, in the central Artibonite region, and in the south of the country. While interventions are not currently required in the areas visited, the teams have provided some health facilities with drugs and materials and have carried out medical consultations. A nutritional surveillance system has also been established in the northwest region and assessments have been carried out in the northeast and southeast areas of the country to evaluate food security.

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