Congresswoman Maxine Waters urged Ban Ki-moon (UN) to finance Cholera, "Hispaniola Initiative"

Waters targeted several issues concerning the UN's handling of the epidemic. Overall, Congress is disappointed at the slow pace of recovery, with the UN spending only $23.5 million dollars, or 1% of the $2.2 billion, required by the Hispaniola Initiative. The funding initiative has as its goals making decontaminated drinking water more available, building more sanitation-treatment centers, and ending the epidemic over the next decade.

Ban Ki-moon countered the charges, claiming the UN has provided $140 million-plus dollars in proactively treating victims of the epidemic over three years. He says the level of infection has been lowered 90%, and the death toll stands at only 1% currently.

At the heart of the conflict between Congress and the UN is their lack of acknowledgement the UN peacekeeping mission created the conditions for the cholera epidemic to spread.

Ban Ki-moon side-stepped the responsibility matter in his reply to Waters and Congress, reminding them the UN bears no responsibility for compensating afflicted communities. This is due to a clause their lawyers have drafted that protects them from being sued for reimbursements.

It doesn't seem a fair trade-off that in order to stabilize the country, Haitians must suffer and die. It has been said poverty is another form of violence, the violence the UN believes it is quelling.

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Read more: Cholera, United States, MINUSTAH, united Nations, Ban Ki- Moon, Maxine Waters, International

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