Haiti’s New Homes: They’re Cheap, Mobile and Highly Recyclable

Haitians have been tweeting abot the container shelters since the earthquake hit because we are aware if the rainy season coming up,

The conversation has progressed from are these good idea shelters to how can we get containers out there as urgently as possible afrolatina on twitter has been the main ne outspoken about containers for haiti, please shift speeds, and express the need and not the possibilities of this happening, if you guys can get the containers the Haitians there will make quick work for shelter, again from the Haitian community, but seems like

Our urgencies and worries always come 2 weeks befor people even care, in that delaying the process in which everyone trys to help too late.

Great idea, and it may be a good long-term solution. But basic math makes this an inadequate emergency shelter for Haiti -- with the arrival of rains, and hurricane season (which battered Haiti with 4 hurricanes a couple years ago) coming in less than 90 days.

At present, 1,200,000 Haitians need emergency shelter, and tarps are not coming fast enough, let alone tents. Tarps are not going to survive a hurricane, nor even a lot of regular storms.

If each container can shelter 6 Haitians, it will take 200,000 containers.

To ship 200,000 containers will require about 1,000 cross-country trains  -- 2 containers per railroad car, times 100 cars per train (plus locomotives) -- for loading onto ships at Caribbean ports. At 10 trains a day, that's 100 days.

All the ports of Haiti and the Domincan Republic -- combined -- probably cannot recieve, offload and transport 2,000 containers a day.

To move the containers from ports to refugee camps, several 100-truck convoys must run day and night between ports and camps -- unimaginable with Haiti's original infrastructure, let alone the mess after the quake.  Trucks and roads in Haiti are already busy with urgent movements of relief personnel, medical supplies, food, and water.  The convoys will find movement difficult, if even possible.

The container-shelter refugee-camp locations are unclear, and -- as yet -- largely unavailable.  Haiti's land management problems are severe -- with no solid government system for commandeering land in an emergency, and land held by thousands of individual landowners jealously clinging to tiny parcels. Haitians cling to their land as their only "social security".  It is already a problem to acquire adequate land for refugee and aid camps.  "Container towns" will require far more land.

The administrative hassles are huge.  Negotiations will probably involve container owners, storage lot owners, crane and truck operators, railroads and ship companies, port authorities, longshoremen's unions, local government, the U.S. Federal government, Haiti's government, and God only knows who else. Heaven help us if a legal case or Act of Congress is involved.

Inside door latches are all that need to be fitted to the containers, probably, to make them adequately habitable to meet the threat of the storms.  But that will add a bit of time to the process, even if every day 2,000 containers a day are retrofitted before shipment -- while the previous day's 2,000 refitted containers are shipped.

In the meantime, it is clear that the containers won't make it in time for most Haitians facing storms, and already facing death from exposure (often quake-wounded), spreading disease (in overcrowded tarp-camps), and violence (due to overcrowding and rising frustration with conditions).

While container homes may be a good long-term plan, something more urgent is needed -- better than simply tarps -- to immediately shelter Haitians with available resources.

Only dirt, rocks and rubble are plentiful in Haiti, now.  Rubble (from collapsed structures) can be used to erect low walls to shield tarps and their residents from severe winds and horizontal rain.

An illustrated description of the concept -- with possible complications and solutions -- is detailed in the article "Lemonade from Lemons: Sheltering Haitians with Rubble" -- posted online at http://betterjudge.newsvine.com

Both solutions -- rubble walls and container homes -- are needed. But first things first. Review it, comment on it, and share with others. The rains have started.