WorldWaterWorks & The Water Survival Box
World Water Works is dedicated to helping people escape the stranglehold of disease and poverty caused by disasters which destroy their homes and possessions and leave them without safe water and sanitation.
Donations received to date total some £86,000 - sufficient to cover the cost of 575 Standard WSBs. well done!
Further donations will be very welcome both to sustain our aid to Haiti for as long as it is needed and then to restock for future disasters.
Haiti - January 2010
Rotary Water-Survival boxes for survivors.
An earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter Scale struck Haiti in the Caribbean yesterday. The latest information is that up to 150,000 people have been killed or are buried under collapsed buildings. Even the Presidential Palace, a working hospital and hundreds of key buildings in the capital Port au Prince have been destroyed. read more...
BBC News HAITI Receives aid from WorldWaterWorks. read more......
Haiti - Latest Update - 31-01-2010
The first consignment of 200 Water-Survival Boxes reached Miami yesterday and are booked by DHL on 'the next available flight' into Port au Prince. They are consigned to PP Dr Claude Surena (Rotary Haiti Disaster Chair) and the Haitian Red Cross and will be distributed by Rotarians and members of the local Red Cross Society. FA French Search and Rescue team (Pompiers sans Frontieres - PoSF) that flew into Port au Prince from Bordeaux on 14 January were equipped with two WSBs (for their own use to ensure clean water whilst they carried out their mission). The 50 WSBs supplied by us through our twin Club in Blanquefort-en Medoc have now reached the PoSF team in Haiti and arrived ahead of the 200 boxes sent by us! The French team were involved in the rescue of a teenage girl some 15 days after the earthquake and have now ended that part of their mission. It has been decided that a PoSF contingent will remain in Haiti for 6 months and their new role is to establish and run a refugee camp on the outskirts of the city of Leogane that was even worse hit than Port au Prince (with between 80 and 90% of all buildings destroyed). The team comprises a Doctor and paramedics who are providing medical care for refugees injured or traumatised by the earthquake. We have agreed to supply a further 50 WSBs to be used by the PoSF team as they continue their humanitarian work and anticipate being able to respond to similar requests in the weeks ahead.
During the past week Rotarians from my own Club with help from the Crewkerne and Somer Valley Clubs have packed a further 100 boxes bringing the total currently available to 275. They will be sent out next week as soon as we can secure a clear path into Port au Prince.
More boxes will be packed next week - new stock is being delivered and we have sessions booked to which two other local Clubs are invited to assist.
Last year we supplied 100 WSBs to Taiwan following the devastation caused by Typhoon Morakot. PP Dr Jo Wong, who coordinated the Rotary aid through World Vision Taiwan then has been in contact. She is now coordinating aid for Haiti and hopes to be able to help with funding supplies of WSBs which we would send direct to Haiti. Taiwan is the only Asian country to have a diplomatic relationship with Haiti and Dr Wong has advised that funding for at least 176 boxes (but she hopes this will grow to 200) has already been pledged by Rotary Clubs in District 3480 – including a magnificent personal donation by their DG and his wife amounting to the cost of 40 boxes. As the funding from Taiwan is received fresh stock will be ordered, boxes packed and sent out.
Our French twin Club have enlisted the help of four other Rotary Clubs in the Bordeaux region and plan to raise funds sufficient to pay for 50 boxes.
Donations received to date total some £86,000 - sufficient to cover the cost of 575 Standard WSBs. Special mention should be made of the Rotary Clubs of Dorchester and Dorchester Casterbridge that have already donated a magnificent total of £8250. Other Clubs to top the £2000 mark in District 1200 include Bathavon, Chelwood Bridge, Crewkerne, Wells, Wrington Vale, Yeo Vale, and the District total amounts to £38364 with a further £35,000 from 73 Clubs in 16 Districts across RIBI. We are aware of the wide range of fund-raising activities being run by Rotary Clubs, local communities, schools, and individuals across the country and are most grateful for your tremendous efforts. Please pass our thanks to all your Clubs and members. Without your help we could not achieve what is being done.
Last Monday BBC Bristol and BBC Somerset Sound broadcast live interviews with me on their Breakfast programmes. These, the earlier BBC TV coverage of our packing operation and articles published in our local newspapers have both raised awareness within our communities and generated significant extra funding from members of the public, schools, and village groups. The spread has been considerable – from the two boys (11 and 6) who donated their £30 pocket money to a local businessman who made a personal donation of £3000 which he has gift aided making the donation worth some £3840.
Further donations will be very welcome both to sustain our aid to Haiti for as long as it is needed and then to restock for future disasters. Cheques should be made payable to Worldwaterworks Limited and sent either to our registered office (see website) or to me at The White House, Pensford, Bristol BS39 4NE
Yours in continuing Rotary Service
Hugo Pike
Chairman – Worldwaterworks Limited (Water-Survival Box project)
PP RC Chelwood Bridge – D 1200.
The sheer scale of Haiti's quake disaster presented rescuers with a seemingly overwhelming task. The prevision of clean water is one of the main ongoing logistical challenges. UN Update Report.
Even before the earthquake only half of Haitians had access to clean water. Now most of the remaining water supply been cut off.
Agencies have been working to provide water and sanitation to as many people as possible.
On 20 January, 755,000 litres of water were provided to 151,000 people as well as 7,000 bottles of water to hospitals, orphan centres and a police station. The ICRC is providing clean water for more than 12,000 homeless people living in three camps.
The UN is particularly concerned about the situation in Cite Soleil, one of the capital's poorest neighbourhoods, where there is an acute shortage of water.
Some bottled water is being brought from the Dominican Republic but far more supplies or purification kits are needed.
The USS Carl Vinson, docked off Haiti, is fitted with water-purifying equipment that can make 400,000 US gallons (1.5m litres) of drinking water a day.
Other countries have sent mobile water purification units, which can convert contaminated water from wells and streams into drinking water.