Amidst Uncertainties, Small NGO Remains Committed To Haiti
Since 2006, a small NGO in Washington, DC, International Action, is using a simple chlorinator to change the way water is purified to meet human needs in Haiti.
- Washington, DC-MD-VA-WV (1888PressRelease) November 08, 2011 - It has been a year since the cholera epidemic began in Haiti. In the span of 12 months, health officials have estimated that more than 450,000 people have been infected and approximately 6,600 Haitians have lost their lives. Based on these numbers, it is not unreasonable to say that each day, at least 1,300 Haitians are infected by cholera and face the humiliation and health risks that come with it. Moreover, it is vey commonsensible to say that it is the most impoverished Haitians who are suffering the brunt of this crisis.
Waterborne in nature, cholera is spreading primarily from ingesting water contaminated with the Vibrio cholerae bacterium, usually carried in human feces. Symptoms include severe dehydration, diarrhea, intense abdominal pains, and fever. Sadly, clean water remains a luxury in Haiti. According to a report published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the number of people who have access to clean drinking water in Port-au-Prince's settlement camps for persons displaced by the earthquake has fallen from 48 percent to 7 percent. Furthermore, the report also suggests that only 54 percent of Haitians have access to safe drinking water outside of Port-au-Prince. To make matters worse, despite the rise of new cholera cases at an alarming rate, humanitarian organizations providing cholera relief to Haitians have fallen from 128 in January to 40 today.
Amidst the uncertainties and pessimistic outlook, a small Washington based non-profit, International Action, with a staff of 5 in the District of Columbia, and 10 Haitian plumbers in Haiti, has been working side by side with the people of Haiti since 2006. The organization's Haitian plumbers install chlorinators on water tanks in the most impoverished communities to protect residents from waterborne illnesses. Chlorinators are relatively simple, low-cost systems that work by chlorinating a portion of the water that passes through a tank and mixing this water with the remaining water so that the effluent water from the tank has an appropriate dosage of chlorine.
According to public health research and leading health organizations, drinking water that has been properly treated with chlorine is safe to drink and will not become re-contaminated in the process of being transferred from the collection point to the drinking glass. Chlorinators that are provided at the community level ensure that households who come to collect water have an appropriate dosage of chlorine for a set quantity of water. In contrast, it is difficult to measure if chlorine is being appropriately dosed if chlorination is being done individually at each and every house.
In International Action's latest update, they reported that 209 chlorinators have been in Haiti at 209 separate sites. These 209 sites are protecting 640,143 Haitians from cholera and other waterborne illnesses. International Action engages local community members to form water committees that regularly monitor the water sites that have chlorinators. A recent monitoring and evaluation initiative revealed that the majority of surveyed households that use water from a water site with a chlorinator had positive chlorine residual (73.2%). Out of those with positive chlorine residuals, 91.9% of residents recognized and credited the International Action's chlorinators, water board members, or plumbers.
Following last year's earthquake, several reports indicated that Haiti had the highest number of local NGOs per capita in the world. A year and a half later, many NGOs have now left, leaving behind failed projects and unfulfilled promises. Now in its 5th year, International Action continues to expand its program, hiring more locals, and saving more lives. When asked to share the secret to its success, Jeffrey Sejour, a Haitian-American working in the DC office simply replied, "We [IA] won't stop in Haiti until we know that every water station has a chlorinator."
Public Information: 202-488-0735
www.HaitiWater.org
info ( @ ) haitiwater dot org
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