UN: Haiti relief funds fall short 

(MENAFN - Saudi Press Agency) Haiti is seeking nearly 54 million dollars to
cover the April-June expenses for the 2010 earthquake-related relief
assistance and the cholera epidemic, dpa cited the UN humanitarian coordinator
in the country as saying Tuesday.

Nigel Fisher said the government in Port-au-Prince is receiving 8
million dollars from the UN emergency fund in anticipation that the
international community would meet an appeal for 231 million dollars
for 2012. Only 8.5 per cent has been funded so far.

The appeal for 382 million dollars in 2011 was funded at only 55
per cent because of the withdrawal of some donors, he said.

Fisher said 500,000 Haitians made homeless by the devastating
earthquake in January, 2010, were still living in camps. The
earthquake killed more than 200,000 people and destroyed most of the
capital. A cholera epidemic has killed more than 7,000 people and
sickened 500,000 since it was diagnosed in October 2010.

He said funds needed in April and June will help the UN and
agencies deliver services to those living in camps, protect camps
against flooding during the rainy and hurricane season, provide
water, hygiene and sanitation services as well as respond to cholera
outbreaks.

Fisher said the funding shortage is threatening 'the very
existence of hundreds of thousands of people still living in camps.'