PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Dadadou is a tent city in Port-au-Prince where about 7,000 quake victims are living in tents set up on a sun-scalded AstroTurf soccer field.

David and I first went there over 2 weeks ago at the request of doctors from Partners in Health, whose mobile medical team had just started visiting the camp. OBI regularly works with Partners in Health to solve water problems, and, other than a scattered supply of bottled water, the people in Camp Dadadou were without water. The Partners in Health doctors met with us and requested that we provide water for Dadadou. 

David and I drove to the camp that afternoon, met with Dr. Jounie, the camp coordinator, and investigated. We found an empty underground cistern and a new 3,000 gallon metal water storage tank, also dry. David asked Pradel, OBI’s Haitian administrator, to call the water company and order truckloads of water; within an hour a truck was dumping 8,000 gallons into the cistern.

There are several trucking companies in Port-au-Prince, all of which buy water from companies that operate deep wells. The water is clear and appears clean, but the aquifer that the wells draw from is contaminated with fecal bacteria—the result of a dilapidated sewer system that leaks.

Haitian adults drink the water and only occasionally get sick because their immune systems have grown resistant to the germs, but children have not yet developed resistance and suffer from chronic water-borne disease. Worse yet, babies, whose immune systems are most vulnerable, often die.

About two hours after our arrival at Dadadou, our white box truck rolled in with a WMI water purification unit onboard. We spent about a half hour discussing where it would be best to set it up. The underground cistern was located over 100’ from the metal water tank. We had to engineer a way to pump the water from the cistern to the WMI unit and then into the storage tank. The problem was that cars drove back and forth between the cistern and the tank and would squash our waterline.

David found a way by tying the pipe along the top of the fence, and then elevating it high over the gate where the cars passed. It worked, and about an hour later, our water team, working with servicemen from WMI, had pure water flowing into the tank. By the time darkness fell, there was a happy crowd lined up to fill their water jugs and bottles.

The next morning, Kumar visited Dadadou to check on the water system and investigate other needs. Dr. Jounie explained to him that there were hundreds of children in the camp as well as 110 expectant mothers and 19 infants born since the quake. She told Kumar of the desperate need for formula and baby food, as well as nutritious food for pregnant mothers. Kumar went back to the OBI warehouse and loaded a truck with baby food, formula, MREs and hygiene kits.

Kumar fell in love with the people of Dadadou and has been going back every day since. Dr. Jounie told him how badly the children needed a place to meet and to resume some semblance of school. We had a 40’ by 60’ tent in our warehouse that had just arrived. It’s the one we had used in post-Katrina Slidell as our food and eating area. Kumar spent about a week clearing an area to set it up near the water tank and organizing a group of teachers.

The people of Dadadou are still hurting, but they are much better off than they were two weeks ago. Now, by the grace of God, the dedication of the hard-working OBI staff on the ground, and the benevolence of OB donors, they have safe water, nutritious food and even a makeshift school for their children. This is a prime example of what OBI is doing in Haiti.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 10:13 am and is filed under Bill Horan, Caribbean, Clean water projects, Disaster Relief, Earthquake, Haiti. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.