Help with Food
Last week the UN rejected compensation claims by victims of a cholera outbreak in Haiti that has killed around 8,000 people and infected 600,000. Evidence suggests cholera was introduced through a UN base's leaking sewage pipes.
Maybe this sound cold-hearted after all the suffering the country had over the last decades, but it was right as a legal matter.
I have been waiting to see some reactions. The case against the United Nations was brought by the Boston-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. They said they would appeal the case.
The U.N. has never acknowledged its culpability in the outbreak and has been unforgiving hostile to what amounts to near scientific certainty. I thought all the way since the outbreak that the UN should to really put in some big efforts (read money) to sort the cholera out in Haiti.
And a few days ago the following message came from the UN:
The United Nations called on the international community today to contribute two billion USD to fund a new Haitian government plan to wipe out cholera transmission in ten years. The call, made by the World Health Organization and the Pan-American Health Organization, is focused on heavy investment in water and sanitation, according to a document distributed in the UN headquarters in New York. At least 1,500 cases of cholera still register in Haiti every week, according to PAHO.
What will happen now? Will the international community come up with the money?
