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WFP ends free transport for aid to Haiti
posted on: Apr 29 2010 8:22 by Royston. Viewed 291 times.
International organisations sending aid to Haiti through ports and airports of the Dominican Republic will lose the subsidised service for this route. From May, the World Food Programme (WFP), which offers free services to NGOs, UN agencies and various governments, will end it's work as a bridge from the Dominican Republic.
Peter Casier, WFP coordinator in the Dominican Republic, said in a statement on Wednesday that Haiti's ports and airports have been restored, facilitating the arrival of aid directly to that country.
WFP's decision, at a time when the reconstruction of Haiti is about to begin, is to "give space to Dominican private companies" that can offer their services to international organizations and NGOs.
Casier explained that there are fleets of trucks contracted by WFP in the Dominican Republic that know the routes and mechanisms of distribution.
Since the earthquake which devastated the Haitian capital on 12 January, WFP took over the logistics costs of getting the aid from the Dominican Republic to the victims.
According to the institution, the transportation infrastructure of the Dominican Republic served to bring to Haiti, through WFP, four thousand metric tons of humanitarian aid, from food to medical equipment, from about 80 organizations and also free transportation for personnel.
For this mass movement of goods, WFP contracted Dominican transport groups to provide 140 trucks to make the trip from ports and airports of the Dominican Republic to warehouses in Port-au-Prince.
The Dominican government had provided to WFP warehouse facilities at airports, although the Airports Department reported in late March it would begin charging for the use of these facilities.
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