It was one of the worst nat­ural dis­as­ters ever – 220,000 peo­ple dead, ­another 1.5million home­less and liv­ing in squalor.

When the heart­break­ing images of the dev­as­ta­tion caused by the mas­sive earth­quake in Haiti ­appeared on TV screens across the globe, the world pledged £3.41billion in aid.

But six months on from the Jan­u­ary 12 quake a Sun­day Mir­ror inves­ti­ga­tion can reveal how the vic­tims are being ­forgotten…because just TWO per cent of the money has arrived.

Chil­dren, many orphaned by the quake, are liv­ing in mis­ery in rubble-strewn camps with lit­tle hope of being rehoused. Peo­ple have to queue for hours just to use a lava­tory as there is just one for every 200 survivors.

And because busi­nesses aren’t up and run­ning again yet, loot­ing is com­mon – ­mak­ing the make-shift camps a breed­ing ground for criminals.

Today UK char­i­ties warn that the res­cue mis­sion is descend­ing into chaos, leav­ing thou­sands fac­ing death.

Donors are refus­ing to hand over their cash until the Haiti gov­ern­ment comes up with a plan detail­ing exactly how the aid will be spent.

But Haiti can’t do that until the money arrives, con­demn­ing peo­ple there to a hell­ish future.

Our rev­e­la­tions will hor­rify Britons who ­donated more than £100million to help rebuild Haiti, one of the world’s poor­est countries.

Six months on from the dis­as­ter, Haiti remains in a state of utter tur­moil with hardly any recon­struc­tion tak­ing place.

The quake left more than 25million cubic yards of rub­ble – but only five per cent has been cleared.

It dam­aged or destroyed 5,000 schools yet just 225 have reopened, mainly run by char­ity work­ers. There is just one doc­tor to treat 50,000 refugees.

More than 280,000 dam­aged homes remain untouched, mean­ing 1.5million peo­ple – a tenth of the pop­u­la­tion – have been left liv­ing in tents in 1,000 makeshift camps spread across the region.

Aid work­ers on the ground say that although the world’s ini­tial response to help­ing Haiti was good, the process of rebuild­ing the coun­try is a shambles.

Hun­dreds of offi­cials work­ing for the Haiti gov­ern­ment were killed in the quake, so the job of drag­ging the ­coun­try out of its night­mare was ­handed to the Interim Haiti Recov­ery Com­mis­sion, cre­ated at the end of March at an inter­na­tional conference.

Coun­tries at the sum­mit pledged £3.41billion in aid… but so far only £327million has been ­handed over.

Two of the biggest con­tri­bu­tions – £754million from the US and £866million from Venezuela – have been held up by delays in Con­gress and polit­i­cal red tape. Mean­while, out of the £714million raised by US char­i­ties, an incred­i­ble ­£468million still has not arrived.

Of the £130million promised by ­Britain, only a third has so far been sent, although the UK’s Dis­as­ters Emer­gency Com­mit­tee insist the rest of the money has been ear­marked for long-term projects.

Ian Bray of Oxfam said nations are sit­ting on their money until the Haiti gov­ern­ment explains how they will spend it.

He said: “It is a catch-22 sit­u­a­tion. ­Coun­tries have promised money but the Haiti gov­ern­ment hasn’t pro­vided a blue­print for recon­struc­tion. There­fore coun­tries are reluc­tant to hand money over until that happens.”

And the speed at which the Haiti ­com­mis­sion is work­ing is caus­ing alarm. Despite being formed in March the body – led by ex-US pres­i­dent Bill Clin­ton and Haiti Prime Min­is­ter Jean Max Bel­lerive – only met for the first time last month.

They are still try­ing to recruit a ­direc­tor of finance who will man­age the bil­lions of aid.

Marie Delorme-Pierre of the ­char­ity CAFOD, who has recently returned from Haiti, said: “It is tragic to see that a lot of money pledged hasn’t arrived.

“With­out the money the recon­struc­tion isn’t going to hap­pen. We need this money and peo­ple are liv­ing under tents in camps, pray­ing it will arrive.

“Unless the world keeps its promise to Haiti, then the nation and its peo­ple will lose their hope of a brighter future.”

Jean Claude Fig­nole of Action Aid, which has been work­ing on the ground in Haiti, added: “Many projects to rehouse the home­less in Haiti are being need­lessly held up.

“There is a real short­age of offi­cials in Haiti to make the deci­sions needed on issues like rehous­ing peo­ple and allow­ing build­ing projects to start.

“Char­i­ties have been able to offer vic­tims access to shel­ter, clean water and health­care. But there is no chance of rebuild­ing the nation until a proper blue­print is put in place.”

British char­ity Save the Chil­dren says it is the most chal­leng­ing emer­gency in its history.

Gareth Owen, direc­tor of emer­gen­cies, said: “It is crunch time. Until a plan has been agreed between the gov­ern­ment and its peo­ple, Haiti and the human­i­tar­ian com­mu­nity will be in a state of a limbo.”