Environment & Shelter

1. Environment & Shelter Environmental Assessment of Haiti Shelter Projects Introduction and context Emergency Shelter Site Assessments Emergency Shelter Material Need and Impact Transitional Shelter Site Assessments Transitional Shelter Material Need and Impact Environmental Best Practices in Transitional Shelter Permanent Shelter Material Need and Environmental Impact Achala Navaratne World Wildlife Fund Haiti Shelter Cluster Environment Advisor 31st August 2010

2. Introduction and context • Humanitarian - Environmental partnerships have evolved since the 2004 Asian tsunami where many humanitarian agencies initiated partnerships with environmental organizations • They have understood the implications of the disaster response and the need for sustainable actions to reduce further vulnerability and improve resilience for future disasters • CARE-World Wildlife Fund, CARE-IUCN, American Red Cross-World Wildlife Fund, UNHCR/IFRC Shelter Cluster-ProAct • Aceh-Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Mozambique, Haiti, China, Padang-Indonesia, Chile and Haiti • CARE/ProAct Shelter Cluster Environment Advisor Training 2009 • Haiti Shelter Cluster Environment Advisor since May 2010

3. Emergency Shelter Site Assessments • Camp Risk Assessments =/= Environmental Assessments • Both intend to reduce risk and create disaster resilient communities • Approx. 200 sites assessed by IOM/UNOPS • Mitigation Task Force formed to highlight and allocate at-risk camps • Supported the assessment during the initial phases and participated in 40 field assessments

4. Emergency Shelter Site Assessments • Conclusions • Over 95% camp sites are spontaneous • Majority of camps do not have camp management agencies • Key issues are flooding, erosion and landslides. In some cases the only option is relocation though no land is available for such action. • Any mitigation work/ recommendations from team needs to be carried out by other implementing agencies • Agencies seem to be over-stretched and not proactive in supporting mitigation activities • In planned relocation sites, risk have been assessed and necessary measures undertaken

5. Emergency Shelter Material Need and Environmental Impact

6. Emergency Shelter Material Need and Environmental Impact • Timber Poles • Between 2 to 3 million timber poles used during emergency phase ( 40 to 60 km2 of plantation forest) • Minimum 12 poles per shelter (Price: $ht 50 to 120 per dozen) • Types of poles: Mang, Kanpech, Frenn, Bayoronne • (10-15 cm circumference, 400 cm length) • From where: Jeremi, Baradere, Grand Goave, Leogane, Hinche • Given Haiti’s lack of timber resources, should a portion of funding be allocated to compensate the timber pole losses? • Any reforestation programs supported by agencies?

7. Emergency Shelter Material Need and Environmental Impact • Timber Poles • Should humanitarian agencies be thinking about the short term operational achievements for only this disaster? • If another disaster was to happen in Haiti and if agencies needed to distribute more plastic sheeting, will there be enough timber poles to cut again? • If so, shouldn’t we atleast replenish the timber poles removed to respond to this disaster, so we may have enough for a future emergency? • If so, why are no reforestation programs supported by agencies?

8. Emergency Shelter Material Need and Environmental Impact • Plastic Sheeting / Tents • Approx. 700,000 plastic sheeting distributed • Approx. 100,000 tents distributed • What happens to these material after use? • Dispose? Burn? Reuse? Recycle? • Remove > Clean > Fold > open for public collection > recycling • Recycling where? Haiti Recycling

9. Emergency Shelter Material Need and Environmental Impact • Plastic Sheeting / Tents Recycling

10. Emergency Shelter Environmental Impact • Sanitation and Sludge Management • Approx. 80,000 litres of sewage is dumped in Truitier waste dump site • everyday Emily Troutman, AOL News

11. Transitional Shelter Site Assessments • T-shelter Environmental Impact Assessment Checklists • Checklist for identifying critical environmental considerations in relocation sites for site selection, preparation and construction • Key issues are disaster risk related issue is flooding • T-shelter Environmental Impact Assessments • Field assessments in Leogane and Jacmel

12. Transitional Shelter Site Assessments • T-shelter Site Selection, Preparation and Construction • Site risk assessments? • Community consultations? • Threats to natural resources? • Access to water and sanitation? • Access to facilities? • Site planning? • Adequate land space? • Material?

13. Transitional Shelter Material Need and Environmental Impact

14. Transitional Shelter Material Need and Environmental Impact The T-Shelter Types In very general terms, the T-Shelter designs can be categorized in to 5 groups as Follows; Type 1:T-Shelter with Timber frame, Cement floor, CGS roof, Plywood walls and Concrete foundations Type 2: T-Shelter with Timber frame, Plywood floor, CGS roof, Plywood walls and Concrete foundations Type 3: T-Shelter with Timber frame, Compacted earth floor, CGS roof, Tarpaulin covering and no concrete foundations Type 4: T-Shelter with Timber frame, Cement Floor, CGS roof, CGS Walls and Concrete Foundations Other : Miscellaneous T-Shelter designs with alternate material such as steel frames, Zn-Al clad walls, permanent structures (not considered in material calculations)

15. Transitional Shelter Material Need and Environmental Impact

16. Transitional Shelter Material Need and Environmental Impact

17. Transitional Shelter Material Need and Environmental Impact • Timber procurement • Approx. 50,000 m3 of timber required • More than 90% of timber imported up to now is from USA, with some imported from Canada and Dominican Republic. • Major potion of locally supplied timber imported from USA. • USA supplies can be assumed to be legal (?)

18. Transitional Shelter Material Need and Environmental Impact • Sustainable and Legal Timber procurement • Many humanitarian agencies request for certified timber • Case Studies: • German Agro Action sourcing certified timber from their own reforestation programs in Dominican Republic • Salvation Army using Colorado dead pines through US Forest Service • WWF Global Forest Trade Network support • and KEEP IT LEGAL guidance note for • agencies produced

19. Transitional Shelter Material Need and Environmental Impact • Sand • Approx. 40,000 to 50,000 m3 of sand would be required

20. River Mining of Sand

21. River Mined Gravel Crushed to be used as Sand and Aggregate

22. Mountain Slope Mining for Sand

23. Transitional Shelter Material Need and Environmental Impact • Aggregate • Approx. 70,000 to 80,000 m3 of aggregate/gravel required

24. Environmental Best Practices in Transitional Shelter • Rain Water Harvesting

25. Environmental Best Practices in Transitional Shelter • Rain Water Harvesting • Project Concern International in partnership with Government of Haiti have produced a Tool and a Guide for Rain Water Harvesting in Haiti • Using a projected roof area of 18 m2, a harvest coefficient of 85%, 5 occupants and a daily consumption of 5 L/p/d (SPHERE and Wash-Haiti minimum), the recommended storage is 650 litres or 0.65 m3 tank • Using a projected roof area of 18 m2, a harvest coefficient of 85%, 5 occupants and a daily consumption of 10 L/p/d (Wash-Haiti goal), the recommended storage is 2000 litres or 2 m3 tank • For Samaritans Purse, using a roof area of 16 m2, a harvest coefficient of 85%, 3 occupants and a daily consumption of 5 L/p/d, the recommended barrel size is 250 litres

26. Environmental Best Practices in Transitional Shelter • Compost Toilets • SOIL (Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods) in partnership with OXFAM is implementing community based ecological sanitation in Delmas 33, Cite Soley, Jake Toto, Delmas 3 and others, making it a total of 15 neighbouhoods. • Composting toilets are beneficial in high water table areas where VIP latrines can not be utilized. They also reduce the need for expensive sludge emptying and disposal operations. • SOIL trains masons on constructing Urine Diversion Toilets and also train the community on managing the composting process from the toilets. The fertilizer is used agriculture or sold.

27. Permanent Shelter Material Needs and Environmental Impact Debris as a resource

28. Base material for traditional building components (e. g. concrete blocks and pressed bricks) * in cooperation with HAYTRAC, Unibank and Cemex • import manual crushing machines • supply screens • provide training on improved construction techniques soon to be reinforced with training on the manufacture of rubble-derived building products

29. Concrete bricks • tested at 300 psi • recommended 500 psi • new tests to be performed after the removal of fines which are suspected to neutralize the cement Pressed blocks • stabilized with cement • likely to give higher compression test results because compacted under higher pressure and solid • tests to be executed soon

30. Base material for non-structural components *plaster *flooring *tie-down pads • Base material for infrastructure elements *paths using honeycomb webbing *pre-moulded concrete drains *road base

31. Thank You Haiti Shelter Cluster Environment Advisor shelterhaiti2010.tech2@gmail.com achala.wwf@gmail.com