By Agencies

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Flood waters that killed eight people in quake-hit Haiti over the weekend have receded in the country's southeast.

Short but intense downpours at night triggered the floods, and there are fears that there will be more and worse flooding when the rainy season starts in earnest in a few weeks.

Hundreds of thousands of people remain living on the streets or under inadequate shelter nearly seven weeks after their homes were destroyed by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake.

Haiti's government, which says up to 300,000 people may have perished in the January quake, had planned to set up dozens of camps with ordinary tents for the displaced.

But now it wants to try to get as many people out of capital as possible and give them thick tarps to whether the impending rainy season, our correspondent said.

Haitian officials say eight people, including at least one child, were killed and two remain missing after the rains and floods on Saturday.

UN assistance

A hospital and prison were evacuated after they flooded and UN troops helped to ensure patients were taken to safety and prisoners were accounted for.

Attempting to minimise the effects of the bad weather, residents have been clearing up rubbish that had been piling up on the streets and canals even before the quake struck on January 12.

The authorities are working to clear the capital's drainage canals and remove debris from neighbourhoods so people can return to some undamaged homes and leave the crowded encampments that may flood when the rainy season starts in coming weeks.

A UN-led group is also inspecting houses to see if any are in good enough condition for people to move back home.

But a volunteer helping to clear the rubbish, Dorval Vanesse, said the government had not done anything to help clean a canal choked with debris in the Martisian neighbourhood.

"This is a problem that we will need to solve ourselves at the camp," Vanesse said, adding that the government even told residents they needed to pay to get the canal cleared.