The United Nations is seeking 400 million dollars for its cholera response in Haiti, including 200 million dollars to provide payments and support to families and communities affected by the disease, a top UN official said Monday, according to dpa. The new push for funding comes after the UN said earlier this year that it had "a moral responsibility" to the victims of the cholera outbreak. UN peacekeepers arriving from another country are thought to have brought cholera to Haiti in the aftermath of a 2010 earthquake. Poor sanitation then facilitated its rapid spread. Under a new two-track plan, the UN is raising 200 million dollars to intensify its cholera response, including a long-term project to address water and sanitation issues, said David Nabarro, the UN special adviser tasked with leading the work on the Haiti cholera epidemic. On a second track, the UN aims to gather another 200 million dollars from UN member states through voluntary contributions or through an addition to the UN budget to provide financial support to families and communities directly affected by the disease. Nabarro said he hoped to distribute 100 million dollars among the families of the more than 9,300 people killed by cholera. The other 100 million dollars would be spent on assistance to the communities affected by the nearly 800,000 cholera infections in the country. "If we receive that sort of money, I could look people in the eyes and say, 'I think this is a decent amount to be working with'," Nabarro said. He added that it's been hard to get traction from member states to finance material assistance to Haitians affected by the outbreak. "I've felt a little bit disheartened about it," Nabarro. "I'm not in a situation where I feel confident about it." The UN has never acknowledged responsibility for allegedly introducing cholera into Haiti in 2010 after it deployed peacekeepers from Nepal, a country known to have had a cholera outbreak, without testing them in advance or ensuring they were treated. Civil society groups, legal experts and scientists have said that the outbreak was caused by poor sanitation at the UN camp, which lead to cholera contaminating the Artibonite River, Haiti's primary water source. Victims of the outbreak have brought a class-action lawsuit against the UN at a US court, however, the UN has claimed immunity against prosecution, which had been upheld by the court. After denying any involvement in bringing cholera to Haiti, the UN decided to consider providing financial support to families affected by cholera this year after increasing pressure from groups inside and outside the UN over what many felt was "unfinished" work Haiti, Nabarro said. "It was a groundswell of different forces coming together," Nabarro said. He added, however, that the UN was not admitting guilt or legal responsibility. "We're not talking about anything other than a moral responsibility to those most affected by the cholera epidemic," he said.
