International relief efforts are gaining momentum in Haiti a week after an earthquake killed tens of thousands of people and left three million in need of help. After criticism that military and rescue flights had been given priority over humanitarian aid at the tiny Port-au-Prince airport, the US and UN have now agreed to prioritise aid, paving the way for critical supplies to get out to survivors.
But severe shortages of fuel and security concerns, transportation bottlenecks and bureaucratic confusion, as well as the sheer scale of the need, have continued to pose severe challenges to the distribution of aid.
The UN said more than 73,000 people had received a week’s rations, but relief groups estimate that as many as one third of the nine million population is in need of assistance, and some 300,000 survivors in the capital alone are still living in sprawling tent cities.
About 105,000 food rations and 20,000 tents distributed on Monday by the World Food Programme and humanitarian groups from neighbouring Dominican Republic, the AFP news agency reported one Haitian official as saying.
Sebastian Walker, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Port-au-Prince, said: "There really is a strong PR effect that has kicked into action to stave off that criticism heard in the past few days", with US military press conferences and the embedding of journalists during aid work.
However, Walker added: "It will be a week tomorrow that the earthquake took place and the delivery of aid does not seem to be going that smoothly."
