Anjali Kwatra in Port au Prince

Wednesday February 10

As well as being desperate for food, water and shelter, survivors of the earthquake in Haiti are also desperate for information about what will happen to them.

In the Champ de Mars area close to the damaged Presidential Palace thousands of people are living on every available inch of space in tents or in tiny makeshift corrugated iron shacks – or even just under bed sheets hung between posts.

The government has said they want to move people out of these informal camps into larger new tent camps for example in the suburb of Croix des Bouquets about 20 minutes drive from Champ de Mars.

Here they will have proper sanitation and waterproof shelters which will be so important during the rainy season due to start in May.

But the problem is that many people don’t want to leave Champ de Mars, despite the miserable conditions, and they are angry that they have not been told officially that they will have to go.

Rumours swirl around the camp that people will have to move by February 21 and that they will be forced to move by soldiers.

Slyva Louis, 47, told me he would not leave whatever the government said as from the Champ de Mars he could guard his nearby home which collapsed after the earthquake.

“There are still things in the house that people can steal, which I can’t take out as I have no where to put them. From here just a few minutes away I can look after my house, but if I have to go far away how will I do that? How will I make sure that no one else claims that land if I am living far away?”

Mr Louis said he was angry that he and his neighbours hadn’t been told anything about the move or when it might happen.

No one was happy about moving from the area close to their homes and communities but others did say that they would move if they could be certain that they would housed properly in waterproof shelters and be given sufficient food.

One of the most important things about moving people into camps is that they are given help there to get back to work and start earning money again. Without this people will become dependent on aid and the camps will turn out to be far more permanent than anyone wants them to be.

• More blogs from Haiti
• Real Lives: Stories from the survivors of the earthquake
• Haiti Crisis Relief Homepage

We urgently need your help to stop this terrible disaster from turning into a long-term catastrophe. We have set up Emergency Appeal pages where you can help the thousands of Haitians who desperately need your support:

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