Above: Haitian workers recycling earthquake rubble (Photo: UNDP)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

A large portion of the total rubble from Haiti’s earthquake is being recycled into materials for building new homes as part of a pilot project by the United Nations Development Programme.

Haiti has recycled about 20 percent of more than half of the rubble that has been removed, using the materials to construct new homes, repave sidewalks and build walls and riverbank protection structures.

About 90 percent of the employees of the programme, which his being coordinated by the UNDP and the Haitian government, are Haitian, according to the UNDP.

“One of our priorities is to bring all these stakeholders together and place Haitians at the centre of this reconstruction process,” said Jessica Faieta, Haiti Senior Country Director for the UNDP.

In Leogane, one of the areas hit hardest by the January 2010 earthquake, almost 75 percent of the rubble has been removed with help from the project, which has trained 7,000 Haitians in manual and mechanical rubble removal, along with other skills.

“This project helps people start living again,” said George Tadros, who oversees the UNDP’s Debris Management Project.