Red Cross still in emergency mode in Haiti

The Canadian Red Cross says it is still stuck in emergency mode in Haiti almost six months after the earthquake.

It says longer-term recovery operations have been delayed by a shortage of space and an unstable political climate.

Aid groups in Haiti are trying to deploy some 125,000 transitional shelters, but so far only 3,700 have been completed.

Those longer-term transitional shelters, built to withstand hurricane winds, are expected to accommodate hundreds of thousands of Haitians for the next several years.

Uncleared rubble and hazy land-ownership claims have complicated the task of installing them; the Red Cross considers that task essential to moving beyond emergency relief.

"Before we put up a structure we have to ensure the plot does indeed belong to the person who says it's theirs," said Jean-Pierre Taschereau, the organization's emergency operations manager.

As part of its emergency phase, the Red Cross continues to provide temporary shelter as well as helping with basic water and sanitation needs.

"The only alternative to this is rebuilding a water and sewage system, which takes more than six months," Taschereau said.

More than 200,000 people were killed in the Jan. 12 earthquake.