Haiti: Water for Life

Ronel Labauche was a high school teacher before the earthquake. Now he’s homeless and unemployed. He and his wife and children are sleeping on plastic sheets.

“All of us affected by the earthquake have to live on what we can find. Prices have gone up because of scarcity,” he says. “Some people really have nothing because they lost their house and everything in it.”

Much of Port-au-Prince has been reduced to rubble. The water mains and drainage systems have been badly damaged and for many people, finding clean water is a real problem.

SCIAF is working with Caritas Internationalis - a global network of aid agencies – to provide communities with clean water that is safe to drink.

In the camp where Ronel and his family live, a giant ‘water bladder’ has been installed and is refilled daily. It holds 15,000 litres of water – enough to cater for 1000 people a day.

Bruna Sorsa has been living on the streets of Leagone since the earthquake struck. She uses plastic sheeting from Caritas to cover the spot where she sleeps and water purification tablets to treat the dirty water she collects.

“I find water where I can,” she said. “I’m happy that now I’ll be able to make sure it’s clean.”

Caritas has given over 280,000 people access to clean safe water or hygiene kits containing water purification tablets. Donations from Scotland are helping to provide:

• Bottled water
• Water purification tablets and plastic water containers
• Water bladders
• Latrines and hand washing points to help minimise disease

In the months and years to come, SCIAF will be working with Caritas to repair Haiti’s damaged infrastructure, clear the rubble from the streets and set up new, more permanent settlements for people that have lost their homes.

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