Human activities and specific events may result in a serious negative effect on the environment. Population growth, migration, unplanned urbanization, changes in land use arrangements, and degradation of the environment lead to natural disasters causing serious harm to the environment. Environmental disasters are a result of hazards leading to severe effects, damages, and losses, emanating from other environmental processes and structures. Most environmental catastrophe cases are caused by human mistake, lack of foresight, greed, and incompetence which is characterized by ignorance from authorities on the happenings. A geographical condition exposes some locations to high natural hazards. The result of these hazards includes earthquakes, volcanic explosions, droughts, and floods. Environmental disasters have devastating economic and social consequences on the globe. A powerful quake knocked Haiti on January twelve, 2010. The earthquake was about seven degrees on the Richer scale, and it quaked Haiti for about 35 seconds. The earthquake is believed to have been caused by the tightening of distortion alongside the Leogane fault, a minor unseen plunge error that was established beneath the Leogane town (Bellerive, 2010). The error which could not be detected at the surface, incline towards the north at a slanted angle different from the EPG fault structure, bringing about the assumption that the quake was a resulted of the slippage of the pillar upward through its level of breakage. The effects of the earthquake were felt in many towns, and 80% of Leogane town was wrecked. The unprecedented situation was created by the earthquake, affecting most popular areas of Haiti as well as the administrative and economic centers. The tragedy affected the country severely because it was experiencing a trend towards stabilization on security, economic growth, social-political condition, and improvement of people's living conditions. The impact of the earthquake on human beings was massive and adverse. The situation was worsened by the fact that the country was marked by a high incidence of poverty. More than 220,000 lives were lost while more than 300,000 were wounded. As such, the affected population was in dire need of psychological and psychosocial support and supervision (Vigreux, 2014). Many people lived in temporary shelters while others abandoned their homes to seek refuge in other parts of the country as a result of the disaster. There was also an outbreak of diseases such as cholera. The outbreak of the cholera epidemic was due to a lack of access to sanitation amenities and clean water. WHO, UNICEF, and the Ministry of health were key players in providing response mechanisms to control the outbreak from spreading to other parts of the country. Nevertheless, the earthquake negatively affected a large fraction of the country’s infrastructure including homes, educational centers, hospitals, and roads among others. Other important foundations, including parliament, law courts, and most public administration buildings were destroyed (Bellerive, 2010). Further, the Haiti earthquake had a dire impact on the environment with the forest coverage being reduced to less than 2%. It is believed that the concentration of the local population in a few large catchment areas had a role in the flooding. The affected areas are also facing acute climatic conditions that expose the country to threatening natural phenomena. This has led to disturbance and worsening of production space, making the population to be vulnerable to poverty, diseases, and external influence. The dependency of the people on the fragile environment for natural resources has made the process of reconstruction to be challenging. Due to these challenges, governments and organizational groups are proposing different actions to promote and conserve the environment (Wahba, 2016). The ministry of environment has been empowered by the organic law that has helped in implementing environmental technical units. These agencies ensure that the various sectors are responsible for conserving the environment as well as natural resources. The environmental technical units are mandated to improve the rivers and catchment basins, help in reforestation to stabilize the ground, and improve the circulation of water. The ministry’s role includes setting up education centers for environmental and natural resource management, implementing environmental measures designed to improve the environment, and helping to reduce future occurrences of environmental disasters. In conclusion, the Haiti Earthquake presents various lessons. There is a need to have ground-breaking tactics to address hygiene, sanitation, and water requirements. As it was in the case of Haiti, this can be achieved through the rapid placement of mobile field clinics, and the promotion of malleable, incremental methods to secure housing and land tenure. Other lessons include the need for international community cooperation with locals to handle a disaster.
Reference
Bellerive, J. (2010). Haiti Earthquake PDNA: Assessment of damage, losses, general and sectoral needs. Annex to the Action Plan for National Recovery and Development of Haiti. Retrieved on 8 March 2017, from http://www.gafspfund.org/sites/gafspfund.org/files/Documents/Haiti_PDNA.pdf.
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Vigreux, J. (2014). Haiti earthquake: Progress report, 2010-2015. Retrieved on 8 March 2017, from http://www.care.org/sites/default/files/documents/Haiti_5_year_Report_Web.pdf.
Wahba, M. (2016). Humanitarian: Response plan . Retrieved on 8 March 2017, from http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/haiti/hti_hrp_060416_final_0.pdf.
