Paul Antoine Bien-Aimé, Minister of Interior and Territorial Communities and the Senior Director of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Jessica Faieta have this week announced the launch of the new "Seismic Risk Prevention Plans for the Great North". "The Seismic Risk Prevention Plans for the Great North is a first in Haiti because for the first time we are attacking the earthquake threat in a transversal way that integrates all components of the problem" said the Minister.

This plan aims to reduce the vulnerability of the three departments of the North, North West and North-East by strengthening the resilience of the infrastructure and populations in order to minimize the economic losses and human lives facing the seismic threat. This announcement was followed by a meeting between the Minister of Interior and the mayors of the three departments to present the plan to the mayors and ensure their commitment and participation in its implementation.

This project, approved by the Interim Commission for the Reconstruction of Haiti (IHRC), will be implemented by UNDP in close collaboration with the government and local authorities. Its budget, funded by the Haiti Reconstruction Fund (HRF), amounts to 9.96 million.

The plan includes six major axes of work with a first phase of consultation and diagnosis in partnership with the departmental and communal authorities. It will be followed by an evaluation of buildings and infrastructure that will be ranked according to their level of importance. Some buildings with high stakes (schools, hospitals, public buildings) will be chosen to demonstrate the feasibility of solutions of reinforcement and additional funds will be raised to systematize this approach.

Another priority is focused on vocational training, of the various construction stakeholders, including the masons, foremen, engineers and architects, who must learn and apply the practices of earthquake-resistant construction. This project will also establish procedures of responses to earthquake disasters through a contingency plan developed by the department and the strengthening of local response. Finally, the project will pay particular attention to the education and the public and authorities awareness, with a special effort in the schools.

"The education and information are key tools in which we must invest. People must learn the good gestures and good attitudes facing the seismic threat. For example, at equal cost, it is better to invest in good building materials that will withstand to an earthquake than to make the economy in order to build an extra room", explains Eric Calais professor at Purdue University, commissioned by the UNDP since July 2010 to provide technical support to the Haitian state in the seismic area.

Learn more about seismic hazards in the Great North:

Haiti is in a seismically active zone between two tectonic plates: the North American plate to the north and the Caribbean plate to the south. The Departments of the North have experienced devastating earthquakes in the past. In May 1842, a magnitude 8 earthquake struck the Cap Haitien and the whole region, accompanied by a tsunami. The Cap has been very seriously affected, as well as Port-de-Paix and Fort Liberté. Scientists agree to say that other large earthquakes will occur in the future in the Great North, to a deadline that they cannot foresee.

HL/ HaitiLibre