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Cuvette is the word Ghislain Rivard uses to describe the scene in 2004 after floodwaters coursed down mountains from all directions into a valley in southeast Haiti, drowning 1,600 inhabitants of Mapou in. The French expression means 'no way out'.

"Overnight, the village disappeared under water," says the Montreal-born and Port Au Prince-based director of programs for Haiti at Save the Children Canada. "Now, there is a lake and the lake will be there for the next three years."

No way out is probably how the 200,000 left homeless, hungry and thirsty in northwest Haiti felt in the face of Tropical Storm Jeanne. At least 2,000 were confirmed dead, and hundreds more were reported missing. Hardest hit was the town of Gonaïves, where a gnawing desperation accompanies the thirst and hunger. Their town was engulfed in mud and misery: homes had been swept away, roads washed out, and every one of its 100 schools has been destroyed.

Rivard's organization was one of many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provide emergency relief to rural communities in the wake of the floods and the storm. After the May disaster, Save the Children set up temporary facilities with plastic sheets for 4,500 surviving children from the outlying region around Mapou. Since 23 schools were destroyed, a summer camp for children aged 5 to 18 was quickly set up to make sure "the kids could have their final year exam in the primary school," says Rivard.

No way out is how many people in Haiti feel far too often, in a country that seems cursed with strife, repression and very bad luck. For aid officials working in Haiti, the natural catastrophes represent just the latest chapters of a longer tale of distress and disaster. Since trees are a source of fuel, income and survival for many rural poor - trees are chopped and burnt into charcoal - entire mountains have been stripped of forests. The resulting soil erosion makes valley communities vulnerable to mudslides and floods during heavy rains. And in Haiti, almost everything imaginable is lacking: hospitals, doctors and nurses, schools, roads, electricity and basic security. Decades of dictatorship and political turmoil paved the way for thousands of skilled Haitians to escape a country that desperately needs them, for the safer and more prosperous shores of Canada, the U.S. and Europe.

Ghislain Rivard is a 20-year veteran of international aid projects. He was in Port Au Prince for two years as part of international reconstruction efforts for Haiti. A top priority was to work with the Haitian ministry of education officials to build new and permanent schools. Described as the poorest in the Americas, Haiti is a country that usually gets missed by journalists - until an armed coup or natural disaster puts in back on the media radar. But it has now joined countries like Bosnia and Cambodia as the target of an aid rescue effort that combines the provisions of basic needs and governance reform.

Canada has always been cited as a natural supporter for Haiti's development because of a shared Francophone heritage and the presence of about 150,000 people of Haitian origin, primarily in Quebec. However, the Canadian government had decided in 2003 to de-list Haiti as a priority country and aid to that country had been cut by half. But tumultuous events in February 2004 - when the democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced into exile during an insurrection by former members of the previous military regime - put Haiti back on Canada's foreign policy map. An interim government supported by the U.S., the French and the United Nations was installed in Port Au Prince.

The government, which includes members of the Haitian Diaspora in North America, was headed by an appointed interim prime minister, Gerard Latortue, a former South Florida Haitian radio talk show host. He is expected to resign and stay out of politics when a new elected government comes to power in 2006. The international community appears willing to unleash development funds during this transition period.

"My understanding is that (the present Haitian government) is aware of what is at stake. They need to maximize their success. The international community is saying this is your chance to make sure things work out in Haiti," says Emmanuel Isch, a director of emergency relief at World Vision Canada.

But some experts on Haiti are questioning whether this reconstruction effort is simply a quick fix. Carlo Dade, a senior official at the Ottawa-based Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL) notes that United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan spoke originally of a ten-year commitment to Haiti, but that idea has since been dropped.

Also, Dade suggests that the triple series of elections planned for 2005 (local, legislative and presidential), were premature in a country where the priority should be the provision of basic needs such as garbage pickup, disease prevention, the building of roads and the repair of water systems. Washington-based commentator Larry Birns worries that enough money won't get to Haiti. He draws parallels with the U.S. failure to contribute towards the rebuilding of institutions in Afghanistan after the overthrow of the Taliban government.

"The amount announced or pledged by donor conferences in reality often comes at half or even less of the pledged amount."

Caroline Anstey, country director for the Caribbean at the World Bank in Washington, denies reports that little of the promised aid money has been spent in Haiti.

"Well, it is happening, but I would be much happier if it was happening more rapidly."

She says that her organization has already spent funds for such "high impact" initiatives as the restoration of electricity and the clean up of garbage in Port Au Prince. The World Bank also worked with other donor agencies to protect areas from further flooding. This includes reforestation, disaster management, early warning and the building of adequate roads to connected outlying communities.

"It is essential to have some quick benefits for the Haitian people. It is also essential to make sure that some of the reforms that everybody wants to see are focused on anti-corruption, greater transparency, and a greater role for civil society."

But Oxfam policy advisor John Ruthrauff warned it could take a year before many projects got off the ground. A major issue was simply the weakness of the Haitian government ministries.

"Haiti is more difficult because the government has collapsed. There is not a lot of expertise in the government at the moment."

Meanwhile, armed groups - pro and anti-Aristide - continue to be active in Haiti. Some doubt that free and fair elections can occur in the current climate. But a Haitian university administrator who lived in Canada for 15 years points out that although the Haitian military was an intimidating role force in 1990, the Caribbean country managed to stage free and fair elections. That campaign led to Aristide's coming to power for the first time. The bigger issue for Herard Jadotte, general secretary of Notre Dame University in Port Au Prince, is the lack of long-term planning in the current reconstruction for Haiti - "it takes time and it's expensive." He notes that while Bosnia has received aid totaling US $67.6 billion up to 2004 (the European Union was a major investor), other troubled states such as Mozambique, Cambodia and Haiti, received an average of US $2.55 billion.

The university administrator adds that "there is very little analysis being done of the lessons learned in the 1994 to 2000 period (the last time the international community unleashed aid dollars for Haiti) of what was accomplished in justice and police, for example, and what went wrong, what can be learned."

For aid workers like Ghishlain Rivard, the priority is to help people in desperate need right now. The Haitian people have proved their resiliency, and Rivard says the world cannot turn a blind eye to their plight. He still believes that for Haiti, with the strategic help of the international community, there is a way out.