On 12 January 2010, just before 5.00 p.m., an earthquake registering 7.0 on the Richter scale struck Haiti, killing approximately 220,000 people, injuring 300,000 more, and leveling significant swaths of the country including much of the cities of Jacmel, Léogâne, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. More than 1,200 schools were destroyed, and an additional 2,500 were damaged. Approximately 188,000 homes and 30,000 commercial buildings were either destroyed or damaged to the point that demolition was necessary.

Overall, approximately two million Haitians were directly affected by the earthquake. Its consequences have made their lives even more challenging than before. Immediately after the quake, 1.3 million people were living in temporary shelters in the capital area, and 661,000 more fled the West department (the earthquake’s epicentre) for other regions of the country.

The infrastructure and capacity of the Haitian government was severely affected, with the vast majority of government buildings damaged or destroyed;16,000 civil servants were killed, and thousands more were left homeless. The UN in Haiti also suffered significant losses—102 fatalities, making 12 January 2010 the deadliest day in its history. Among the dead were the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) and his deputy.

Furthermore, the earthquake compounded environmental challenges that had already reached near-crisis proportions. As a result, Haitians who survived the earthquake are now even more vulnerable to disasters such as flooding and landslides, further exacerbated by deforestation and poor watershed management.