Haiti Earthquake Essay

The reason behind the massive destruction in Haiti was due to the lack of infrastructure and structurally sound dwellings. This issue stems from three other issues and they are building codes, construction materials, and population density & urbanization. All of which are an effect of Haiti being a poverty stricken country (Inside Disaster: Haiti). Since Haiti is poverty stricken it lends to the issue of people building where they want and how they can. And according to Cletus Spring, director of the Department of Sustainable Development, Organization of American States, “Not everybody’s going to be able to build to the exacting standards that a building code requires.” With the absence of building codes, licensed contractors, engineers and architects this all contributed to an environment that is almost guaranteed to fail when a catastrophic earthquake hits (Inside Disaster: Haiti). This leads to the next issue of construction materials. An earthquake resistant building on average costs about 15% more to build than a non-earthquake resistant building. However, this is not plausible for most Haitians to afford …show more content…
In 1923 over 60% of Haiti’s land was forested and as of 2006 only 30% of the country is forested. However in 2006 it was claimed that Haiti had only 2% of its forests left and this estimate has been challenged due to unsubstantiated research (O'Connor, M.R). In Haiti deforestation is seen as a severe environmental problem and it caused by two variables. The first being is charcoal which is Haiti’s main source of domestic energy production. The second is from farmers clearing land for planting and farming erosive crops. If the Haitian government changed or created policies to encourage the use of modern charcoal creation methods and reforestation it could improve the charcoal industry and reduce the requirement for imported nonrenewable energy