Up and Coming: Haiti earthquake toll 'far lower'

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Haiti earthquake toll 'far lower'

A tent community set up in Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince after the devastating earthquake

The draft report suggests many individuals still living in tent cities did not loose their homes in the quake

Significantly fewer people died or were left homeless by last year's earthquake in Haiti than claimed by the country's leaders, a report commissioned by the US government has said.

The draft report puts the death toll between 46,000 and 85,000, below the Haitian government figure of 316,000.

It also suggests that many of those still living in tent cities did not lose their homes in the disaster.

Haitian authorities have stood by the figures released last year.

The report, which has yet to be released publicly, is based on a survey commissioned by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and draws its numbers from door-to-door surveys carried out over 29 days in January 2011.

But US State Department spokeswoman Preeti Shah told the Associated Press News Agency the report had inconsistencies and would not be released until they were resolved.

Analysts say the new figures could challenge the premise of a multi-billion-dollar aid and reconstruction effort.

The report also estimates that about 895,000 people moved into temporary settlement camps around the country's capital of Port-au-Prince and no more than 375,000 individuals are still living in the tent communities.

Those figures conflict with the numbers provided by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which has said 1.5m people moved into the camps after the quake and that there are still 680,000 in settlement camps around the capital.

The report, which USAID commissioned through the Washington consulting firm LTL Strategies, also says there was significantly less rubble around the country's capital than previously thought.

The number of those killed and displaced by the earthquake in Haiti prompted an outpouring of aid for the country, including a $5.5bn (£3.3bn) pledge during a UN donor conference last year.

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the Caribbean nation on 12 January 2010.

This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.