Haiti Well Repair
Project Snapshot
Country: Haiti
GPS Coordinates:
Latitude 18.538038
Longitude -72.337062
Impact:
Total Served: 250000
Status: Under Construction (?)
The Water Project has joined a coalition of water organizations who are coordinating a response to the crisis unfolding in Haiti.
We’re proud to be partnered with Living Water International (LWI) who are already providing assistance to the people of Haiti. They are on the ground repairing wells today.
The Water Project is helping coordinate fund-raising campaigns with schools, churches, small groups and individuals. By working together in a broad coalition, TWP and our partners can free LWI to carry out their work in-the-field and be less concerned with raising money.
Program Information
LWI is mobilizing to help communities in Haiti restore clean water after the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere was rocked by a catastrophic earthquake.
The massive 7.3 magnitude earthquake was the strongest to hit the country in 200 years and was felt as far away as Cuba. It brought down buildings including the presidential palace, hotels, a hospital, and the UN headquarters in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. Tens of thousands are feared dead.
LWI teams are already on the ground in the midst of unimaginable devastation to do what they can, but the problems for affected communities are only beginning. The most urgent need during the coming days and weeks will be water. Homes can take months to re-build, electricity can take weeks to restore, but people can’t last long without water.
Earthquakes destroy water systems. Pipelines break, electrical distribution systems fail, and hand-dug wells–—already questionable water sources–—are rendered useless or become contaminated with cholera, typhoid, and other waterborne diseases.
“In Haiti, clean water is a terrible problem even at the best of times,” said LWI Executive Director Gary Evans. “After a quake like this, it’s a crisis of epic proportions.”
The earthquake was centered about 10 miles west of Port-au-Prince. The quake was felt in the Dominican Republic, which shares a border with Haiti on the island of Hispaniola. Some panicked residents in the capital of Santo Domingo fled from their homes.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve been part of disaster relief in Haiti,” says Evans, referring to LWI’s response to the devastating hurricane season of September 2008, when four major storms including Hurricane Ike slammed the country. “But this could be the worst we’ve seen.”
LWI is leading a coalition of water organizations that are partnering to multiply their effect on Haitian communities. Partners include Global Benefit, Mercy Water (working with Nspire Software), Wishing Well, Hydrate Hope Project (through I AM CHANGE),The Water Project, and Safewater Nexus.
Project Photos
Project Updates
Haiti Project Update
From the LWI Team…
As we have discussed, LWI has been – and will continue to be – invested in the long term water needs of Haiti. We are working to scale our operations to include 500 well rehabs in 2010. Just as a reference, our programs were completing between 200-300 a year, previously. This scale is possible, but we obviously need your help. As we each work with our constituent base, our common goal is not to see giving spike around this immediate disaster and then dwindle off when the media leaves. Rather, sustained investment in this program will allow the work to continue…. I think of the pressing need for all efforts of on-ground organizations in Haiti to immediately be able to scale, but to do so in a way that is sustainable.
We have found that the migration away from PaP has happened quickly. Our team is currently outside of PaP – and has repaired 9 wells so far (update was as of Friday – work occurred over the weekend). There is a lot of work ahead of us, and we are working to make sure that supplies are on the water to build our capacity. Our teams have reported that there are already people from PaP in Cap Haitian. So, we know from this point forward, work anywhere in the country is a response to this disaster.
After a phone call with our team in Haiti, LWI’s Haiti program director shared that the team indicated: “broken wells are everywhere; they said they could repair wells forever.”
Thank you for your partnership in assuring that long-term water needs are being met in Haiti. I have had an opportunity to keep in touch with many of you, and look forward to continuing to work towards a shared investment in rebuilding water infrastructure in Haiti.
