JACMEL, Haiti - Jacmel is a city with a population of 120,000 people. It is surrounded by mountains and beautiful beaches, a must-visit for tourists. Flowing through the city is a river where almost all cleaning chores are done. Women wash clothes, men clean their motorbikes, kids swim and people bathe in this river.

But when there is heavy rain, the river quickly rises and floods the city. When a string of powerful hurricanes hit Jacmel, everything turned into a pool of water. The water rose more than 6 feet, destroying houses and forcing people to flee to higher ground for safety.

As the floodwaters receded, they left behind thick layers of mud in the streets and inside homes. But that was the least of the damage.

In Jacmel, water is a major concern. With few wells in this city, people walk great distances to get drinking water, and even then, the water is not clean. The water sources were further contaminated by the hurricane and all the power supply in the city is down. Without power, the wells cannot pump water and I saw people instead taking water from the river to be used as drinking water. Many children have diahrrea and people are sick. In some areas, city water is available, but only twice a week.

Operation Blessing, in partnership with Water Missions International, World Concern and DHL, installed a water purifying system in the town of Siloe, where more than 500 families will benefit from this system that can purify up to 10,000 gallons of water a day. Since the system comes with a generator, we were able to pump the water from an existing well into a reservoir, purify it and then distribute it to the people.

Ironically, Peirrie, a representative for Water Missions International in Haiti said that in January of this year he was in Jacmel for a conference and saw that the water in this well was not clean. Now, the system is not only meeting an immediate need for villagers during this time of disaster, but it will also provide clean water for the long-term.

Earlier this week, we returned to check the system and ensure all was working well. The water was flowing non-stop as the demand was high.

It is a blessing to know that these efforts are literally bringing relief to thousands of lives.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 at 9:53 am and is filed under Carribean, Hurricane Relief, Kumar Periasamy. 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.