U.S. military commanders overseeing food and water distribution in Haiti acknowledged Thursday that the effort remains uneven and that there are places they still have not been able to reach. Food prices on the open market are surging, causing tempers to flare.
Armed food convoys carrying free water and food staples are now a regular sight in the Haitian capital. Each day, U.N. and U.S. troops escort delivery trucks to impromptu distribution points, where the hungry line-up.
In the Bel Air neighborhood, Argentinean U.N. forces oversaw an orderly distribution of hundreds of 20-liter jugs of drinking water. Other distribution efforts have not gone as smoothly. In some instances, they have turned violent.
U.S. Air Force General Douglas Fraser told reporters in Miami that the aid effort is falling short. "We are still not up to meeting the needs of the Haitian people as far as the amount of supplies that are there. There have been some isolated instances where we have been out to distribute aid to citizens, and there has not been enough food. We have not anticipated the demand at each site," he said.
Fraser said that despite the extensive earthquake damage, the country's commercial food networks have restarted and that fresh fruit is available on the streets in Port-au-Prince. But the cost of that food has skyrocketed, angering vendors and their customers.
Two women selling cooking oil, cornmeal, rice and pasta at a retail market in northern Port-au-Prince say wholesalers have raised prices by at least 50 percent and that many of their regular customers cannot afford to buy food.
This vendor says wholesalers are charging more for everything because they say they do not know when they will be able to restock their inventories.
Source : http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/disaster/Surging-Prices-Uneven-Food-Distribution-Add-to-Haitis-Woes-82992352.html
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