Greg Bennick (interviewed for IDIOTEQ in a lengthy interview) just returned from a trip to Haiti where he looked at dozens of water tank sites in order for One Hundred For Haiti to take financial responsibility for a major health initiative: the maintaining, building, and repairing of forty existing and proposed water tanks which will help keep deaths from cholera in the Ranquitte region at zero.
Initially started in 2011, the Rural Water Project was the brainstorm of medical experts at Peacework Medical who felt that local water sources were potentially deadly due to the existence of cholera in the groundwater. They realized that water from these natural springs could be treated with chemicals at specific times (whenever a storm threatened the water source – which happens regularly) to insure that cholera was killed and that the water was safe until the threat diminished.
Twenty tanks were built initially, and when One Hundred For Haiti got involved last year, we decided to fund ten more tanks. The recent trip this past month was to absorb the entire project from Peacework (who are focusing more on domestic USA issues from this point forward) and to explore new potential tank sites. We found ten more which need to be built, and are now raising the money to build those ten, and maintain / repair the thirty tanks which exist already. All Haitian labor will be used for this project.
For more information, check One Hundred For Haiti’s website and learn how you can get involved with a recurring monthly donation.
NPR reported this week on the dire situation and the need for cholera prevention. You can listen to and read their stories HERE about the situation and HERE about a spike in cases.
