CDMP Progress Bulletin

Haiti Community Preparedness: Jeremie Vulnerability Assessment

Bulletin Date: December 1999

With the support of the Caribbean Disaster Mitigation Project (CDMP) local disaster committees have been created in three communities in the disaster-prone southwest peninsula of Haiti. The membership of the local committees consists of representatives of locally operating NGOs, schools, the church and other civic organizations. To assist the local disaster committee in the town of Jeremie, CDMP recently undertook an assessment of the natural hazards affecting the town and evaluated the vulnerability of the population, infrastructure and economic activities to the impact of these hazards. This activity was carried out as part of a program designed to assist local communities to learn about the conditions that can threaten their safety and property, and to take steps to reduce their vulnerability. Further information on other CDMP activities in Haiti is available on the project web site.

The study was conducted by a geologists/planner and a economist/decision analyst contracted by the CDMP. The local disaster management committee provided logistical support and volunteers to assist the consultants with their fieldwork. Supervision of the activity was provided by the CDMP coordinator in Haiti.

Using existing geophysical and climatological data, complemented by extensive fieldwork, an up-to-date multi-hazard map of the Jeremie area was produced. Three hundred households were interviewed on their experience with past disasters, their understanding of hazards and their perception of risk, social network and economic activity. The selected households were located in the different hazard prone areas of the city and form a representative sample of the population. Local volunteers carried out the household survey. Through the survey, existing local resources for addressing hazards were also identified. The active involvement of local citizens in the collection of information strengthened the community's link to the survey results and deepened the volunteers' understanding of local hazards.

Hazard maps, information on the location of lifeline infrastructure and the household survey were combined to determine the vulnerability of population, infrastructure and economic activity. In addition to the vulnerability assessment, the study also identified approximately fifty potential interventions for mitigating the existing hazard vulnerability. These activities ranged from enhancing local surface drainage to establishing a fuel-wood production lot and installing a community operated flood warning system. Several are suitable for implementation by the community with local labor and small financial assistance.

Upon completion of the fieldwork in Jeremie, the CDMP team organized a presentation of the results for members of the community and representatives of government agencies and NGOs operating in the region. More than eighty persons participated in the presentation, including the mayor of Jeremie and the political representative of the Grand Anse district. Several donor agencies have expressed interest in the results of the study and indicated they may consider funding some of the proposed projects. The CDMP is now assisting the local disaster committee in establishing itself as a legal NGO to enable it to become a local executing agency for implementing the recommendations of the Jeremie vulnerability study.

The final version of the Vulnerability Assessment for Jeremie is available on the CDMP web site.