JOHN Holmes, the British diplomat who heads the UN's disaster relief programme, has called for a massive increase in the provision of shelter and sanitation in Haiti before the arrival of the rainy season in a few weeks.

Holmes, who is chief of the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs, said the rains presented a “very big challenge” because of possible flooding and spread of disease. The UN has embarked on what he called a “shelter and sanitation surge” in the face of what could turn into a second wave of disaster.

The UN has identified about 20 locations that pose a danger to people in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, which endured the most concentrated impact of the Jan 12 earthquake.

Some areas are at risk of catastrophic flooding. Others are on such steep slopes, meaning that the makeshift homes in which people are sheltering would be washed away.

The sites include a golf club in the Petionville area of the city which the US military used as a base to distribute food and water at the start of the disaster, and the main square in front of the presidential palace, where thousands are living in overcrowded and insanitary conditions.

Up to 150,000 people are thought to be living in these danger points, and about half of them need to be moved to other parts of the city or beyond.

To prepare for such a relocation, the UN is trying to speed up the clearance of rubble from core locations to make way for tent cities designed to cope with the rains.

Holmes said it would not be easy to shift such large numbers of people in time, partly because “people don't want to go very far”. He added “Even if we had some big sites outside Port-au-Prince it might be difficult to persuade people to move.”

— The Guardian, London