Five Cities for Haiti

History

Haiti’s Capital, Port-au-Prince is on the Gulf of Gonâve and has been the country’s largest city since it was first incorporated under the colonial rule of the French, in 1749. The French laid out the city in a grid pattern and called it L’Hôpital.

Port au Prince has suffered frequently in its history, including fires, civil strife, and earthquakes. Much of the city was destroyed by quakes in 1751 and 1770, foreshadowing future disasters.

Over the years, significant political influence, from both internal and external forces, conspired to funnel all political and economic interests into the small footprint of Port au Prince. This concentration of interests has created a myriad of problems for the country resulting in*:

• Ranking 149 out of 182 on the United Nations Human Development Index
• Having a life expectancy of 55 years for women and 53 years for men
• Ranking as the third hungriest country in the world after Somalia & Afghanistan
• Scoring an Adult literacy of about 62%
• One of the poorest countries in the world
• The poorest country in the western hemisphere
• 78% of Haitians live on less than $2 US per day
• The richest 1% of the population controls nearly half of all of Haiti’s wealth

While the noted rankings are certainty troubling, the “concentration of interests” strategy also ignored one inconvenient and tragic truth: The Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system runs straight through Port Au Prince. The city’s recorded history of devastating earthquakes was to be repeated.

January 12, 2010: A 7.0 earthquake effectively leveled Port-au-Prince

The quake destroyed the now much larger city, just as has happened in the past. Haiti’s prized Cathedrale de Port-au-prince, the capital building, the Presidential Palace, many of the ministerial buildings and most of the central historic area of the city was destroyed. The resulting displacement of Haitians left with nowhere to live was unfathomable:**

• At the peak of displacement, around 2.3 million people, including 302,000 children, were left out of their homes.
• The Government of Haiti estimated that 105,000 houses were completely destroyed and 188,383 houses collapsed or were badly damaged across all affected areas.
• The Haitian Ministry of Education estimates that 4,992 schools were affected by the earthquake – 23 percent of all schools in Haiti. Of these, 3,978—80 percent of the affected schools—were either damaged or destroyed and were therefore closed after the quake.

Given this catastrophic destruction and massive need for housing, schools, enterprise and jobs, coupled with the inescapable looming of Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system and additional potential plate shifting and resulting earthquakes in Port au Prince, it is the conclusion and vision of The Haiti Recovery & Development Company that our Five Cities for Haiti initiative is fundamentally necessary for Haiti's recovery and its future self reliance.