It seems uncommonly cruel and unjust that a nation as devastated as Haiti is facing the threat of a cholera epidemic even as it struggles to cope with the aftermath of a tropical storm.

As of last Wednesday, cholera had claimed at least 583 lives and sickened more than 9,000, according to the Health Ministry. Frantic aid workers are fighting to keep the outbreak from spreading into congested earthquake survivor camps in Port-au-Prince.

This is misery piled upon misery, part of the burden of history in a country where natural disasters are practically a chronic affliction. But this time around Haiti’s problems have been compounded by the inexcusably slow pace of recovery and reconstruction.

Ten months after the earthquake, more than one million people still live under plastic sheeting, vulnerable to rainstorms and other menaces. Security in these camps is woefully lacking.

Much of the devastation, meanwhile, has not been cleaned up. Mountains of rubble are evident wherever the earthquake hit. So far, only 5 percent has been removed, far short of the amount that could reasonably have been expected. Bureaucratic delays in disbursing available funds are a major reason for the lack of progress.

These are basic relief tasks that have been left undone. Tireless work by an army of relief workers has stabilized the situation, but the cholera epidemic threatens to undo their efforts.

The reasons for the shaky start are not hard to fathom — the scale of the devastation, widespread poverty, an ineffective government that suffered a crippling blow when the earthquake destroyed virtually all of the federal buildings and killed thousands of public employees.

But that was, we repeat, 10 months ago. Humanitarian emergencies are never easy to cope with, particularly an off-the-charts disaster like the one that rocked Haiti. Yet despite an encouraging international response at the outset and promises of coordination and cooperation at all levels, the effort has bogged down.

Now, with elections scheduled for the end of the month, many of Haiti’s leaders seem distracted and unable to give urgent attention to relief matters.

President Obama can send a signal by calling for lawmakers to move quickly to allow disbursement of $1.15 billion in reconstruction money for Haiti. The president signed a bill approving the money last July, but the funds remain stuck on Capitol Hill while lawmakers quibble over the details of a spending plan.

Maybe the cholera outbreak can serve as a reminder that recovery and reconstruction efforts must be revitalized. Haitians need safe places to live, the streets need to be cleared and jobs must be created to replace the despair that looms over so much of the country.

At this rate, next year’s hurricane season will arrive and there will still be too many Haitians living in camps with no hope of finding better shelter and with the economy still moribund. The people of Haiti deserve better.