Monday, the Prime Minister, Laurent Lamothe, joined by Senator Simon Dieuseul Desras, President of the Senate, visited the community of Canaan, north of Port-au-Prince, to better understand the extent of the progression of the phenomenon of wild urbanization and evaluate the conditions in which lives 300,000 people (IDP's) (± 58,000 families) on over 1,000 hectares of land, following the earthquake and in difficult conditions.

According to Laurent Lamothe, this visit is part of the will of its Administration to address the issue relating to the living conditions of the population of Canaan and announces to this population, of actions likely to regain control of the situation and then make this site a livable space.

At a press briefing, the Head of Government declared "[...] We came to make a field visit, an inspection because there is a situation here that we have inherited, which is very difficult. We have over 300,000 people who live here, more than 58,000 families over 1,000 hectares of land, which are now in a difficult situation.

At the Government level we have an urbanization plan of sites and services, that we put in place, so it was important as responsible, that we came on the field to see how the situation is and how this program can land. This is a program that is part of the Haiti Reconstruction Fund (HRF), which is managed by the World Bank and other international partners, this is where the project is today, and it is first objective.

The second objective is to talk with representatives [leaders] of neighborhoods with the Associations, so that we can understand the conditions in which people live [...] so that we can come up with a strategy to help them [...]

The third objective is that there are zones where the Government has lifted the order of public utility and we would like that it is respected. In this sense, we work with the Unit for Housing Construction and Public Buildings (UCLBP), for there is a policy of relocation of these people, so that the latter do not continue to build in these areas, because they endanger and squat land.

To be able to provide services, it is necessary that the zone is controlled, because when the expansion is done without control, it becomes very difficult to implement the water and electricity, for the state to do its job. We came to do an inspection, see the demarcated areas and asks to respect these limits [...]

There are 2-3 requests that the people of these zones have made, we will study them. We will create a Joint Monitoring Committee and the President of the Senate is here with me, so that we can work together to provide sustainable solutions to these very serious problems. We know there are also people of the diaspora who are building here today also. We discourage this type of investment because in reality it is a zone that we must protect and when the expansion is done in an anarchic way, everyone is at the bottom [...]"

The inhabitants of Canaan were pleased with this visit, hoping that the Government will carry out as announced, the urbanization project of this site.

HL/ S/ HaitiLibre