Sanitation response in emergencies: lessons learnt from practitioners in post-earthquake Haiti

The January 2010 earthquake in Haiti caused catastrophic damage, and the displacement of about 1.5 million people in urban and peri-urban areas of Port-au-Prince. A web-based questionnaire was developed and sent to international organizations working in Haiti through the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Cluster in order to assess how humanitarian actors responded to the sanitation needs for Internally Displaced People (IDP). The findings showed different sanitation systems being implemented during humanitarian relief and the transition to the reconstruction/development phase. Humanitarian practitioners faced specific challenges to sanitation provision related to the urban type of the emergency response. However, experts’ opinions highlighted innovative solutions that have not been implemented in the field, due mostly to land tenure issues, donors’ restrictions and lack of political will. Practitioners provided some suggestions for more resistant sanitation technologies as well as some recommendations for sanitation provision in the early recovery phase.