Haiti's Natural & Cultural Vulnerability

Vulnerabilities of Haiti
by Vanessa, Jenna, John, Alexa and Jamie

Brief Summary
12 January 2010
Magnitude 7.0, epicentre WSW of

Port-au-Prince
Casualties: at least 225,000 in 2009 (direct and

indirect e.g. diseases, unstable society etc. )
POPULATION INDICATORS NEW ZEALAND HAITI
Population 4.471 million 10.32 million
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of country $ 174.8 billion $19.36 billion
GDP per capita $ 37,100 $ 1,800
% of population who are less than 14 years 19.76 % 33.33 %

old
Literacy rate 99 % 60.7 %
Birth rate per 1000 people 13.3 births / 1000 people 23.3 births / 1000 people
Death rate per 1000 people 7.4 deaths / 1000 7.7 deaths / 1000
population population
Infant Mortality rate 4.5 deaths / 1000 births 48.2 deaths / 1000 births
Unemployment rate 15 % 40.6 %

Political Unrest
● Long history filled with political revolutions
○ Spain + France → black republic → USA → corrupt Haitian politicians
● New black republic
○ Required to pay France
○ Shattered economy
● Slavery (offsprings form a large portion of Haiti population), forced labour
○ Spain + France, USA
● Corrupt government
○ Assassination of political competitors
○ Charge unnecessary money/tax from civilians
● (So-called) Peacekeeping
○ Uses force
● Unstable society - crime, poor government social servies, malnutrition, abuse etc.
Poverty/Health
Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, with average wages of $2 a day
which can only supply them with the bare necessities. The poverty, poor living
conditions and the tropical heat in Haiti all encourage diseases such as AIDS, hepatitis,
typhoid fever, dengue fever, diarrhea and malaria.
Hospitals aren’t as available in Haiti as they are in 1st world countries and once the
earthquake struck the hospitals weren’t functioning which made Haiti’s high death and
infant mortality rates even more extreme. Poverty in Haiti makes people supremely
vulnerable to the extreme natural events such as earthquakes.
Urban Area
In Haiti, 47% of people live in cities, which sustain the greatest damage in extreme
natural events. The housings are poorly constructed and dense, just like the ones in the
background. However, they house 86% of Haiti’s population.
2.6 million out of 10 million (more than 25%) of the population live in the urban area
of Port-au-Prince (capital of Haiti), which is very close to the focus of the earthquake.
The capital is also the economic and political centre of the country, which means
under the circumstance when the capital is nearly flattened, the whole country would
be disordered.
Housing
● The housing situation in Haiti before the earthquake is one of the points that
demonstrates the cultural vulnerability of the country.
● 86% of the urban population in Haiti currently reside in a slum, in cramped and
overcrowded conditions.
● There are very little building regulations in place. In the poorer areas of Haiti,
there is no one enforcing earthquake and building regulations. These shantytowns
are unplanned, and are made of cheap, often waste, materials. this leaves them
susceptible to natural disasters.
● Wealthier Haitians live in larger and more planned urban areas, however, after the
earthquake these houses had been proven to be just as vulnerable as the slum
housings.
Lack of Awareness / Pre - disaster Preperation
Most of Haiti’s people struggle to survive day in, day out and before 2010 earthquakes
were the least of their worries, all they were focused on was staying alive. It is not ‘living’
that matters the most to people, but ‘survival’. Haiti had no instruments to record
earthquakes, no scientists specialising in earthquake studies, no earthquake awareness
programmes, no state insurance scheme, no building codes and no Civil Defence
organisations. Almost all the buildings were not inspected, which makes this already
earthquake-ridden country even more vulnerable. It was a massive shock to all of
Haitians to have a magnitude 7 earthquake.
Means of Communication
Very few Haitians can afford private transportation, so the rest resort to public
transportation. Normally public transportation consist of tap-taps and buses and they
are both filled until they are busting. After the earthquake many crevasses appeared on
the main roads, which is already of poor quality, making it very difficult for the
Haitians to get help or to get to friends and family. The efficiency of help from
overseas is also decreased with damages to the country’s transport system. Telephones
were also not able to be used since the cell phone towers and telephone lines were
down, making it even more difficult to get in touch with other people.
Political Corruption in Haiti
● In the time period between 1984 and 2009, people from around the globe donated
$2.6 billion to aid poverty in Haiti, however, these donations had a very small
effect on the nation, as most of the funds did not reach people suffering from
poverty.
● Many journalists attempting to investigate the corruption in Haiti have been
killed or have fled into exile, for some unknown reasons.
● Throughout the 1990’s and 2000’s, Haitian police force still suffered from extreme
corruption.
Natural factors which increase the vulnerability of the
environment to earthquakes
Loose soil
● Haiti has deep deposits of alluvial soils and gravels especially along the coastlines
around the capital in Port-au-Prince Bay (these are easily liquified and shaken).
Faultline
● Large fault lines run East to West through Hispaniola. Although no major
earthquakes have occurred prior to this big earthquake for almost 150 years, the
area has had severe earthquakes and tsunamis in the past (1842, 1770, 1751). The
presence and nearness of active faults increase the level of vulnerability. E.g.
Leogane fault, Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault, the fault between the Gonave
Plate and North American fault.
Natural factors which increase the vulnerability of the
environment to earthquakes
Hill environments
● The hills in the surrounding countryside have a lack of trees to prevent erosion.
(the cause however is cultural as it occurred because of deforestation). This means
landslides and silt deposition occurred. E.g the hills behind Port au Prince all the
way to the eastern border with the Dominican Republic.
Low-lying coastline
● In the presence of hurricanes and tsunamis, any coastal areas, especially with a
large fetch (the distance travelled by wind or waves across open water), are
exposed to the force of large waves. This factor can be increased when the
coastline is low lying and has few protective rocky and raised headlands.

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Vulnerabilities of Haiti

by Vanessa, Jenna, John, Alexa and Jamie

Magnitude 7.0, epicentre WSW of

Casualties: at least 225,000 in 2009 (direct and

Population 4.471 million 10.32 million

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of country $ 174.8 billion $19.36 billion

GDP per capita $ 37,100 $ 1,800

% of population who are less than 14 years 19.76 % 33.33 %

Literacy rate 99 % 60.7 %

Unemployment rate 15 % 40.6 %

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