Haiti Earthquake One Month After

'We've made real progress in getting clean water and food to people since the quake hit a month ago, said Robert Fox, executive director of Oxfam Canada. 'But the same progress must now be made in tackling poor sanitation.

Oxfam fears that without a bigger push from government, UN and aid agencies, cases of diarrhea and other water-borne diseases could spread given the combination of poor drainage, a limited number of latrines and crowded living conditions.

To date, Oxfam has provided assistance to about 100,000 people and continues to scale up operations, planning to reach at least 500,000 people by the end of July. Oxfam has installed latrines at 11 key sites and many more are planned. Public health teams are working with communities to reduce the risk of disease by rubbish-clearing and awareness-raising.

'Thanks to the generous public and political response the aid effort has rapidly expanded, but there is still a mountain to climb, said Marcel Stoessel, Head of Oxfam in Haiti. 'We now need a surge to improve sanitation. Let us not kid ourselves. It will require a Herculean humanitarian effort from all quarters. Around 230,000 people lost their lives on January 12. Our priority is to make sure that that number does not grow.

The huge logistical challenges facing the aid effort - communications, transport, loss of key staff, destroyed physical and political infrastructure are slowly being overcome, though bottlenecks remain. The UN has made great strides in coordinating the hundreds of agencies now in Haiti - estimates vary from 500 to 900 but stronger leadership is needed, Oxfam said.

For the longer term, Oxfam said, rebuilding will take many years and needs the full support of the international community, but ought to be led by Haitians for Haitians.

'Canada has provided crucial leadership in the emergency response, Robert Fox said. 'But rebuilding the country is a task in which Haitians must lead. When the Prime Minister visits Haiti next week, we hope he will pledge full support for the central role the Haitian government must play in reconstruction.

For more information or to arrange interviews, please contact:

In Canada:
Karen Palmer on +1-613-240-3047

In Haiti:
Ian Bray on +44 (0)7721 461 339